Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu Faces Boos at Fire-Stricken Le Porge

A crowd of roughly two hundred people, dressed in black, assembled before Le Porge’s municipal building on Aug 17 to confront Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, expressing anger over the state’s response to the summer wildfires that razed 183 houses in the Gironde area. The demonstrators jeered, whistled and shouted slogans, questioning why the leader had not visited sooner. Tony Veiga, a 65-year-old pensioner, said the government treated the community as unimportant, while activist Ludivine Daurignac warned that residents had been blocked by riot police and planned to file complaints for “truth, transparency, and justice.”

Lecornu’s office replied that he had already spoken with locals and farmers and had nothing to hide about the fire-protection operations. After the brief appearance, he traveled to nearby Merignac to meet municipal officials. The fire, which burned 42,000 ha and came within 15 km of Bordeaux, forced the evacuation of over 220,000 people and was the largest blaze in France since 1949.