French opposition parties have sharply criticized President Emmanuel Macron after photos emerged of him riding a jet ski against the backdrop of massive wildfires sweeping the country, reports infohub.kz.
The head of state is spending his vacation at the summer residence of Bregancon. The published images sparked outrage among left-wing party representatives. Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure wrote on social media: "In the heat, when France is burning, when some French people couldn't go on vacation, the president is having fun on a jet ski in Bregancon."
Marine Tondelier, the green party's candidate for president, also mocked Macron. She ironically commented on social media platform X: "France: thousands of deaths due to five heat waves, drought and historic fires, agricultural crisis, rising unemployment and poverty, housing crisis, huge debt... Emmanuel Macron: 'Did you see how fast my big jet ski goes?'" Tondelier stressed that the president is staging a photo report of his vacation "in the midst of an apocalyptic summer," while French firefighters are short of resources.
Communist Party senator Pierre Ouzoulias said that Macron's place is in a fire truck alongside firefighters, helping them fight the blaze.
In response, the president's entourage said that the photographer who took the pictures was not given "any authorized access" to prepare the material, as reported by the newspaper Le Parisien. They also lamented that photos of Macron have been published every year for nine years.
Earlier, it was reported that the area of burned land in France had reached 115,000 hectares.