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Europe’s heatwave moves east as row erupts in France over air conditioning

French far-right leader’s ‘grand plan’ to expand AC comes under attack, while Germany braces for possible record heat

The European heatwave has moved east, threatening record temperatures in Germany, as a political row broke out in France over air conditioning.

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen seized a canvassing opportunity before the 2027 presidential election, announcing she would launch a “grand plan for air conditioning” for the nation if she won power.

In parliament, Le Pen, an MP for the Pas-de-Calais in northern France, said “air conditioning saves lives”. She said there was a problem in France if public services “are unable to function because of a lack of air conditioning, unlike dozens of countries across the world”.

Éric Ciotti, a Le Pen ally, put down a bill in parliament this week calling for “obligatory air conditioning” for key public spaces.

France has a low number of public spaces and private homes with air conditioning compared with neighbouring countries such as Italy. In 2020, 25% of French homes had air conditioning, compared with 14% in 2016, according to the national environment agency, Ademe.

The government attacked the far right as ignorant and “incompetent” for suggesting air conditioning was a solution to the climate crisis. The environment minister, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, said air-conditioned spaces in care homes for elderly people had been obligatory in France for 20 years. She said that, although vulnerable people should be protected from the heat, air conditioning “must not be installed everywhere” because it generated a rise in temperatures outside and was “the wrong answer”.

The Green leader, Marine Tondelier, attacked Le Pen for an environmental policy limited to “buying air conditioning units”. Tondelier said there had to be progress made on green spaces in cities and proper insulation of buildings.

Meanwhile, Europe continued to grapple with a deadly heatwave that has resulted in record temperatures and several deaths.

In Spain, officers from Catalonia’s regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, were investigating the deaths of two farm workers whose bodies were found on Tuesday by firefighters tackling a wildfire near the town of Coscó in Lleida province. The wildfire burned through 6,500 hectares (16,000 acres) of land in the north-eastern Spanish region and authorities ordered 18,000 people in the area to remain at home.

The regional president, Salvador Illa, urged people to take extra care, warning them not to underestimate the speed and ferocity of wildfires.

“These fires aren’t like the ones we used to have,” he said on Wednesday. “When you find out how they evolve, you get goose bumps. There are really dangerous fires.”

The two men died on the same day that a young boy died, apparently from heatstroke, after being left in a car in the Catalan province of Tarragona on Tuesday.

France’s energy minister reported two deaths with a direct link to the heatwave, with 300 people taken to hospital this week.

A 70-year-old lorry driver was found dead inside his vehicle in northern Italy. The man was discovered shortly after 6.30am on Wednesday, parked at a motorway rest area between Sirmione and Peschiera del Garda, in the province of Brescia.

A 57-year-old construction worker who was carrying out renovation work at a house in Giuliano di Roma collapsed and died in front of his colleagues. Doctors said the extreme heat was probably to blame for his death. Another man, aged 85, died from dehydration shortly after arriving at the emergency room in Genoa.

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