In the midst of relentless heatwaves sweeping across France, the topic of air conditioning and other cooling devices has become a political battleground for parties vying for voter support ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
Preliminary data from the French public health agency shows that over 1,000 excess deaths were recorded in just three days between June 24 and 26, with home deaths being particularly severe.
The government has urgently purchased 30,000 air conditioners for hospitals, which are expected to arrive in the coming days to cope with the next wave of high temperatures. Since the record-breaking heatwave in 2003 that caused nearly 15,000 deaths, some French hospitals have been rebuilt or renovated, but others still haven’t completed the upgrades.
As a core driver of global multilateral climate agreements like the Paris Accord, France has an air conditioning installation rate of only 25%, far lower than other European countries at the same latitude. 80% of the population believes AC is not environmentally friendly, and officials from the ecological transition ministry oppose widespread AC adoption, arguing it’s merely an emergency measure that increases carbon emissions rather than a climate adaptation solution.
Against this backdrop, parties with different environmental philosophies have been locked in long-term opposition, and there’s never been a unified policy push for widespread adoption.
Figures like former National Rally leader Marine Le Pen have cleverly framed the AC issue as a class conflict between “elite environmentalism and ordinary people’s basic right to survival.” She promises to implement a national AC plan if elected, prioritizing installation in hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and other places where vulnerable groups gather. She also criticizes the left’s environmental stance for delaying public AC retrofits.
According to public policy journalist Andrea Vigano, Le Pen recently revived her “climate plan,” which includes government-supported 20 billion euros in interest-free loans to help 30 to 40 million households install cooling equipment.
National Rally also criticizes President Macron and the EU for over-promoting green policies, and points to stricter regulations on issues like car emissions and phasing out gas boilers. Le Pen’s proposals hit the immediate needs of ordinary people and have gained widespread support.
National Rally is the largest single party in the National Assembly, advocating for stricter immigration policies, stronger border control, prioritizing welfare for French citizens, promoting French language and traditional historical culture, and reducing France’s contributions to the EU.
The latest polls show the party’s support has risen by 3-6 percentage points, solidifying its base among low-income and elderly voters, while also attracting many undecided young voters. National Rally President Jordan Bardella’s latest voting intention support rate is around 34% to 35%.
Environmentalists and some officials warn that making AC the main solution will increase electricity demand and emissions, affect urban landscapes, and distract from fundamental climate action. The International Energy Agency says Europe’s AC ownership rate is about 20%, more than double the 1990 level, but distribution remains uneven, being more common in wealthy households.
The far-left party “France Unbowed” and its ally the Greens have long held an environmental stance of “prioritizing building insulation, rejecting large-scale AC installation.” The camp’s core figure, France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, publicly states that widespread AC adoption would directly push up carbon emissions, worsen the urban heat island effect, creating a vicious cycle of “the hotter it gets, the more AC we use, and the more AC we use, the hotter it gets,” while also bringing additional financial burdens.
Mélenchon, now 74, announced in May that he would join the election for the fourth time, having built strong grassroots mobilizing capabilities through long-term political activities.
As for the Greens, formerly the Western European Ecology Coordination Bureau, they center on green politics and pro-Europeanism, advocating for ecological priorities, carbon reduction, and climate change mitigation, while promoting social justice, grassroots democracy, anti-nuclear and anti-violence stances, supporting equality movements, and protecting cultural and linguistic diversity. They fall on the left-wing establishment side of the political spectrum.
Green Party leader Marine Tondelier has repeatedly mocked the far-right’s AC plan as a short-sighted move detached from environmental concerns. She proposes long-term solutions like building insulation retrofits and urban greening to address heat at its root, but these projects take time and require citizens to bear the costs themselves, making them hard to implement quickly during extreme heat.
However, the Greens have gradually softened their stance, acknowledging that schools and hospitals need AC, but still strongly oppose widespread adoption. This internal division has significantly weakened the left’s moral authority.
The centrist Macron government, on one hand, has launched emergency measures, purchasing 1,200 portable AC units for 620 schools in Paris. On the other hand, it continues its previous national climate adaptation plan, focusing core investments on building insulation upgrades and heat island management, without incorporating large-scale AC adoption into official core policy.
France’s next presidential election is expected to officially begin in mid-April 2027, and must be completed before Macron’s term ends on May 14, by which time France won’t have entered summer. So this year’s extreme heat will significantly influence the voting intentions of key swing voters.
Some analysts point out that the current polarization in French politics is already hard to reverse, and next year’s election will likely see a rare scenario where far-left and far-right candidates face off in the second round. Meanwhile, as a core leading country in the EU, the election results will have far-reaching influence on other European nations.
