French government seen facing no-confidence vote over heatwave handling

PARIS, July 1 - French Green party lawmakers have announced plans to file a no-confidence motion against the government over its handling of a severe heatwave in late June, as the country braces for a third possible bout of extreme temperatures next week.

It was not immediately clear if the motion would be put forward this week or early next week.

• When asked about the motion, government spokesperson Maud Bregeon said on Wednesday: "Obviously, it's going to be filed. It is a political manoeuvre." "There is a government managing the crisis and there are political forces fueling the crisis by introducing the motion," Bregeon told reporters after a meeting of the French Cabinet.

• The bid to topple Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s minority government is unlikely to succeed without the backing of other opposition parties, including the far-right National Rally or the Socialists. The Socialists have not supported any of the no-confidence motions filed against Lecornu since he took office last year.

• Cyrielle Chatelain, who leads the Greens in the National Assembly, said on Tuesday the motion would be filed to protest at the government's "lack of preparedness not only for the heatwave we have just experienced, but especially for the one that is coming."

• Though temperatures have started to drop from record-high levels, they are still around 30 degrees Celsius (86°F) in much of the country and are expected to rise again at the weekend, national weather forecaster Meteo-France has said.

• French PM Lecornu said on Monday he was keeping the country's health emergency response plan, ORSAN, at its highest level for the coming days in view of "a possible recurrence of a heatwave episode".

• France has recorded at least 1,000 excess deaths during the blistering heatwave that has swept Europe since June 20, the public health agency said on Sunday, warning that the true figure was likely to be higher.

• During question time at the National Assembly on Tuesday, Chatelain said the government bore some responsibility for the deaths during the heatwave. PM Lecornu angrily challenged a figure of 10,000 deaths recently floated by some Green MPs as "scandalous" and "undignified". REUTERS