As France burns, the far right sees an opening

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 MP 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.” Whether that argument will gain traction remains uncertain. But National Rally may not need voters to see it as an authority on climate change; its opening lies instead in the declining credibility of the parties that have governed France — and a sense among some voters that the state is no longer capable of protecting them. Recent research shared with POLITICO — based on four focus groups with former center and center-left voters who appeared unlikely to support those parties again — found repeated references to a country that was falling apart. Participants cited a series of recent crises, including the murder of an 11-year-old girl by a suspect previously known to police, as evidence that the government was failing to act. Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella arrive to attend a ceremony in Nice, France on July 14, 2026. | Pool photo by Philippe Magoni via AFP/Getty Images That frustration extends to climate preparedness. In a YouGov poll published this month, 74 percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with Macron’s climate-adaptation policies. “The National Rally mechanically benefits from its anti-system positioning whenever there is a news event that gives the impression, right or wrong, that successive governments have not taken effective action to address the difficulties faced by the French people,” said Mathieu Gallard, research director at Ipsos France, a polling firm. The fires have burned more than 1,000 square kilometers across southwestern France since the start of the summer — an area roughly 10 times the size of Paris — and forced more than 200,000 people from their homes. Coming after an extreme heatwave left the countryside tinder-dry, they have already scorched nearly twice as much land as during the last devastating fire season in 2022. Images of the Bordeaux region, home to a large population and many popular vacation spots, engulfed by flames have deepened an already grim mood in the political class and among ordinary citizens alike. Macron made an impromptu visit to the area on Monday to meet with local firefighters and appealed for national unity as his government sought to contain criticism of its response. Le Pen herself struck a more restrained tone. In a post on X, she said the images had filled the country with horror, offered support to victims and evacuated families, and praised firefighters and civil-protection forces for their “exceptional self-sacrifice.” She did not directly criticize the government. As France has sweltered through record heat, the National Rally has so far paid little political price for its lack of credibility on climate and environmental policy. Instead, the party has sought to focus attention on adaptation — how the government protects people from the consequences of a warming climate — rather than on measures to reduce emissions. During a heatwave in June, it proposed financial assistance to install air conditioning in homes and public buildings, casting the plan as an immediate response t