Chilling out gets political as France swelters without air con
Marine Le Pen, the populist champion and presidential favourite, responded to this month's 40C temperatures with a call for an urgent 'national air-conditioning plan' to help the sweltering lower classes. Schools, which saw 2,000 heat-forced closures last week, and care homes were especially hit, she said.
'They suffocate in buildings without air conditioning because leaders have decided that the French people should suffer from the heat, while they obviously enjoy air-conditioned vehicles and offices,' the leader of the hard-right National Rally told parliament.
Le Pen was tweaking the ingrained view among France's superior classes that there is something sinful about climate control. Even before the fear of greenhouse gases emerged in the 1970s, air conditioning was seen as an unnatural, noisy, costly and unhealthy indulgence, suitable for soft Americans, like automatic car transmissions, but not for the steelier French. The outlook has shifted, with wider adoption of 'la clim' in homes, mainly in the sunny south.
Some 25 per cent of French homes have air conditioning, well below the level of equipped homes in Italy and Spain, which is 40 per cent. In Britain it is 5 per cent, and Germany 3 per cent. Sixty per cent of all new cars in France have climate control.
The old outlook endures, however, as witnessed by the refusal by the 2024 Paris Olympics organisers to cool the athletes' village. That prompted foreign teams to bring mobile conditioners or move to hotels.
A thicket of regulations govern installations, with permission needed from the town mayor for houses and a vote from co-owners in apartment buildings. A 2021 survey reported that 48 per cent of French people believed air conditioners should be outlawed because they damaged the environment.
Le Pen's attack on the country's leaders as hypocritical was aimed at her core audience, who are seen by the thinking classes as diesel-driving cigarette smokers.
'For the so-called French elite, austerity is always reserved for the lower-middle and working classes,' she said.
Éric Ciotti, a former conservative leader who runs a small party allied to Le Pen, leapt in with his own demand to subsidise aircon for the masses.
Right-wing commentators railed at the lectures on climate virtue from the 'nanny state'. Often mentioned is the renaming of the weather forecast on France 2 television, equivalent to BBC1. It is now Météo Climat, instead of just La Météo. In another example, a caller to a government hotline for coping with heat was told to avoid even using a basic electric fan.
On the other side of the political divide, the left and Greens voiced outrage at the call from a party leader who plays down climate change and opposes wind turbines. Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the environment minister, called Le Pen incompetent and ignorant because nursing homes were already required by law to provide air-conditioned rooms for fragile residents.
'The issue we have with air conditioning is global warming. We need to provide air conditioning for vulnerable people and give them some respite,' Pannier-Runacher, a career treasury official and graduate of elite universities, said. 'However, we mustn't do it everywhere, otherwise we risk warming the planet, which is a bad solution.'
Gabriel Attal, a former socialist and ex-prime minister who leads President Macron's centrist Renaissance party, said the focus must be placed on insulation and buildings designed like traditional southern structures to cope with outdoor heat. Along similar lines, Sandrine Rousseau, a radical Green MP, urged France to revert to shutters and fans.
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The Guardian
8 hours ago
- The Guardian
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James Cleverly's homecoming is shrewd move for Tories
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Putin is preparing for another invasion while Nato is fatally distracted
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Moscow is also developing a new satellite meant to carry a nuclear weapon as an anti-satellite capability. 2. Harden critical infrastructure against cyber attacks Russia has one of the world's most destructive arsenals of cyber weapons, a sophisticated doctrine, and advanced expertise. The 2025 Annual Threat Assessment warned about Russia's repeated success in compromising sensitive targets for intelligence collection. Moscow is likely to already have access to critical infrastructure in the US and Europe. Moscow has a particular strength and practical experience in integrating cyber attacks with military operations in wartime. 3. Establish stronger protocols to guard undersea communications cables Russia's General Staff Main Directorate has a highly secretive deep sea research programme, known as GUGI. Moscow is highly likely to have put this expertise into practice, with several suspected sabotage operations of undersea cables in the Baltic Sea since the war in Ukraine began. A similar risk applies to energy pipelines. In October 2022, the UK Ministry of Defence acknowledged that a Royal Navy frigate was deployed to the North Sea to assist Norwegian forces in protecting gas pipelines, after the rupture of Nord Stream in the Baltic. 4. Bullet-proof against Russian espionage It hardly needs saying that Russia routinely infiltrates spies all across Europe and recruits locals to steal military, political, and economic secrets. But Moscow has also been able to insert intelligence operatives to conduct destabilisation operations, targeting critical infrastructure. Some estimates suggest that such sabotage operations almost quadrupled in number between 2023-24. Multiple arrests have taken place, including in Germany, Poland, and the UK. But the alliance must take a more pro-active approach, neutralising and disrupting Russia's espionage operations before they are able to do damage. 5. Establish advantage in total combat potential Having moved onto a war footing several years prior to the invasion of Ukraine, Russia now produces more ammunition in three months than Europe does in one year. Scaling up production of air defence systems, tanks, drones, and ammunition is imperative for Nato to catch up to Russia and restock its depleted arsenals. Weapons don't shoot themselves, however. The alliance must recruit, train, and equip a fighting force sufficient to change Putin's decision calculus. Moscow has been mobilising overtly and covertly throughout its three and a half year war in Ukraine. And on Tuesday, a bill was submitted to the State Duma introducing year-round conscription for military service. If approved and signed by Putin, the law will come into effect on Jan 1, 2026. In Europe, only a few countries have mandatory military service, and so far most of the others are not considering it. But in a war of attrition, such as the one Russia is fighting in Ukraine, the side that has more manpower is better positioned to win. The good news is that the alliance has time to get its act together to prevent another invasion. It would be tragic if the alliance fails to step up to the plate now, especially given the colossal price Ukraine is paying to defend itself against the Russians. Nato owes it to all those dead Ukrainians and their families to develop a viable counter-strategy to Putin's playbook. Rebekah Koffler is a strategic military intelligence analyst, formerly with the US Defense Intelligence Agency. She is the author of 'Putin's Playbook', Regnery 2021. Her next book 'Trump's Playbook' will be published later this year. Rebekah's podcast Trump's Playbook is running on her channel Censored But Not Silenced and is available on most social media platforms @Rebekah0132.
