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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Angelique Chrisafis

Will brutal wildfires force French leaders to take climate crisis seriously?

Firefighter in orange helmet walks beside fire and smoke at base of trees
A firefighter works to contain a wildfire near Saumos, in the Gironde department of France, on Wednesday. Photograph: Mael Dubiez/SDIS33/EPA

As dozens of forest wildfires burned across France this week amid the summer’s fourth brutal heatwave and increasing air pollution, some wondered whether voters’ first-hand experience of the climate emergency would change the political debate ahead of next year’s presidential election.

The Green leader, Marine Tondelier, who cut short a tour of France on medical advice that at seven months pregnant she should avoid breathing smoke-filled air in the south-west near a huge wildfire in Gironde, said the political class still had its head in the sand.

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