PARIS — Out-of-control wildfires fueled by extreme heat and drought might seem unlikely electoral fodder for France’s far right.
Marine Le Pen’s National Rally has spent years opposing green regulations. Yet the party is seizing on the country’s worst blazes in years to argue that President Emmanuel Macron’s government is failing in one of its most basic duties: protecting people and their homes.
Edwige Diaz, a National Rally member of parliament and close Le Pen ally from the fire-hit Gironde region, says the blazes are the latest in a series of crises — from extreme weather to concerns over crime and child safety — that expose the government’s broader inability to protect the public.
“All the proposals that we have been putting forward for years with Marine and Jordan [Bardella] … today we realize that those are the only ones that could have spared us these situations, from protecting us from wildfires to saving our children,” she said. “Current events, alas, prove us right.”
