“Restore normal life as quickly as possible. » This is the whole meaning that Emmanuel Macron wanted to give to his visit to Brittany, a few hours after the passage of storm Ciaran on Friday. A sentence related to the numerous power cuts which are affecting many homes, as well as the damage which will take several days to resolve.
“We have a fight, which is to restore normal life as quickly as possible,” declared the Head of State, during a trip to Plougastel-Daoulas (Finistère). An objective which could be complicated by a new depression expected on Saturday evening, called Domingos, indicated Météo-France which expects “a new strong gale on the Atlantic coast”, with “gusts of 120 km/h on the ribs.”
Storm Ciaran left serious damage in its wake, particularly to the transport and electricity networks. At midday, some 450,000 homes were still without power, mainly in Brittany and Normandy, according to Enedis.
The President of the Republic promised a state of “natural disaster” and “agricultural calamity”, “wherever we can do it” and praised the organization of relief, which “made it possible to save many lives”, estimating that this event had been “well managed”. “It’s really the fruit of collective learning from the storms of 1999 (which left 92 dead in France), the instruments we then built, the investments we made in Météo-France, our system prevention and alert,” he underlined.
The President of the Republic arrived shortly before 3:30 p.m. in this town in Brittany, greeting in turn residents, elected officials and officials of the relief forces called upon to deal with the bad weather which caused two deaths in France and caused numerous damages, notably in this region. “We will continue to clear away,” assured Emmanuel Macron, promising additional “reinforcements” and “the support of the entire nation” to elected officials, some of whom thanked him for being “alongside the people of Finistère”.
“You have a lot of certainties at your age”
The President of the Republic then spoke with residents in the streets, who questioned him on various subjects such as pensions, inflation and the climate. A young person in particular criticized him for coming by plane, questioning him about “the climate inaction that you are offering us”. “Poor thing, I hope you will grow,” Mr. Macron replied. “I think you have a lot of certainty at your age,” he added. The President of the Republic was also questioned by a farmer reporting damage. He promised to go “see a farm”.
Brittany was hit by particularly violent winds, up to 207 km/h at the Pointe du Raz, notably causing power cuts for 1.2 million people, and mobile network cuts for a million customers, falling trees and transport stoppages.