France: Prime Minister booed in a southwestern town devastated by fires

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu was booed by dozens of residents during a visit Monday morning to the town most affected by the megafire that devastated 42,000 hectares of forest in southwestern France at the end of July, an AFP journalist observed.

Some 200 people dressed in black, gathered in front of the town hall of Le Porge, where 183 houses burned, booed and clapped as a car with tinted windows and a flashing light approached, at the scheduled time of the meeting between Mr. Lecornu and the mayor of the town, Martial Zaninetti.

"Where is he? Where is he?", the crowd shouted in front of the cameras of the journalists on the scene.

"It would have been the very least" that the Prime Minister had met with the residents. "It really shows they're treating us like we're insignificant," said Tony Veiga, a 65-year-old retiree.

Mr. Lecornu is due to meet with members of a residents' group on Monday, his entourage said Sunday evening, after revealing that he had already gone to Le Porge on Sunday afternoon to "tour the town" with the mayor, a trip that had not been announced and without cameras.

"He came by yesterday on the sly. He must have been in Cap-Ferret (an upscale peninsula near Le Porge, editor's note), that's why he took the opportunity to come and visit Le Porge as a tourist. It's pathetic," says the man in his sixties whose parents and brother lost their house in the fire.

On August 1st, the Prime Minister stated that the pain of the victims was "being exploited by conspiracy theorists on social media", while some residents of the village believe that during the megafire, the authorities sacrificed their homes to protect Cap-Ferret, on the edge of the very touristy Arcachon basin.

"He doesn't want to meet with us, it's a shame. We had things to express" and "we are greeted by columns of CRS (police officers specializing in maintaining order, editor's note) who are blocking our access," regrets Ludivine Daurignac, organizer of a collective of affected residents who intend to file complaints "to get answers."

The head of government is then due to travel near Bordeaux for a round table with "local elected officials and those involved in the reconstruction".

With 42,000 hectares burned, this fire, which was contained on August 1st, is the largest in area in France since 1949. The flames came within 15 km of the Bordeaux metropolitan area and caused the evacuation of more than 220,000 residents and tourists.