Move, see, thank: Emmanuel Macron can not go further. “He will make no announcement, believes a minister knows. It would immediately be seen as an admission of failure.” While 20,600 hectares have burned in Gironde in the fires that have affected the department since Tuesday July 12, according to the latest report reported this Wednesday at 7 a.m. by France Bleu Gironde, Emmanuel Macron is expected at the scene of the fires this Wednesday where he must to go “to the people mobilized” against the megafires, confirmed the Elysée at the end of the day.
>> Fires in Gironde: follow the evolution of the situation live
More than 2,000 firefighters as well as eight Canadair and two Dash planes are mobilized according to the Gironde prefecture. 36,750 people have been evacuated since the start of the fires. This displacement, symbolic, must make it possible to answer this question: why not to have taken these measures earlier? To tell the truth, the essentials are in place, and the Head of State will therefore only express his gratitude, as he did in the summer of 2021 after violent fires in the Var. And he is counting on Gérald Darmanin to extinguish the controversies, like Tuesday July 19 at the Assembly: “There are 20 planes and 35 helicopters. We have the largest European combat fleet. We have increased the Civil Security budget by 44% in five years“, pleaded the Minister of the Interior, who wants to avoid any controversy.
At the Elysée, another attack is anticipated: “No, it is not a communication operation which further complicates the work of firefighters and law enforcement. We do everything to ensure that this visit mobilizes as few people as possible“, assures the entourage of the president. “Only a handful of journalists will follow him and we waited until the situation was almost under control“, we specify. The trip was not confirmed until Tuesday July 19, around 7 p.m., after a last point with the prefecture.
However, in the National Assembly, for several already, we wonder: where was Emmanuel Macron? If Gérald Darmanin congratulates himself, in a rather inappropriate turn of phrase – “Knock on wood, dare I say: there are no deaths“- that these fires did not cause any victims, the deputies of the various oppositions point the finger at the deficiencies of the State, in particular on the material. “The twelve canadairs that we have left have accumulated years of service, even decades of service. Some of our equipment is held on the ground, and indeed there is a real problem“, estimates Laurent Jacobelli, spokesperson for the RN group.
The Insoumis Louis Boyard believes that the government does not take the measure of global warming: “We have old equipment, we have to borrow from Greece. I am shocked to see that after the fires in Gironde, we are not a promise of a climate emergency law, shocked that we have no awareness. And the leader of environmentalists, Julien Bayou, to use the same words of Jacques Chirac to better blame Emmanuel Macron: “The president is an arsonist firefighter. It is he who, through his inaction, contributes to aggravating climate change. Then he goes to see the damage. Very well. The house is burning and he is looking away.”
Finally, this trip is also an opportunity to respond to certain concerns, expressed in particular by local elected officials in recent days. The president of the department of Gironde, Jean-Luc Gleyze, for example, directly challenged the president of the Republic, considering that the aerial protection fleet was insufficient. After his detour to the scene of the fire, Emmanuel Macron will go on Thursday to the Tour de France stage between Lourdes and Hautacam, in the Hautes-Pyrénées.