PARIS — French lawmakers from the Green party filed a no-confidence motion on Thursday targeting the government’s response to a deadly heatwave that has gripped the country since late June, even as France prepares for a possible third round of extreme heat next week.
The motion has the backing of 32 Green party lawmakers, 25 hard-left France Unbowed lawmakers, and one Socialist lawmaker. A Green party spokesperson at the National Assembly told Reuters the motion is expected to come up for debate on July 6.
Despite the political pressure, the effort to bring down Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s minority government is not expected to succeed. The National Rally party has already announced it will not support the motion, and the Socialists have declined to back any of the no-confidence motions brought against Lecornu since he took office last year.
Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon pushed back on the move even before the motion was formally filed. “There is a government managing the crisis and there are political forces fueling the crisis by introducing the motion,” she said on Wednesday.
While temperatures have begun to ease from their record peaks, much of France is still seeing readings around 30 degrees Celsius — about 86 degrees Fahrenheit — and national weather agency Meteo France has warned that heat will build again over the weekend.
France’s public health agency reported on Sunday that at least 1,000 excess deaths have been linked to the heatwave that has swept across Europe since June 20, cautioning that the actual toll is likely even higher.
During a session at the National Assembly on Tuesday, Green party leader Cyriele Chatelain argued that the government bears some responsibility for the deaths that occurred during the heat emergency.
Some Green lawmakers have gone further, suggesting the death toll could be as high as 10,000. Prime Minister Lecornu sharply rejected that figure, calling it “scandalous” and “undignified.”
