LA PORGE (France), Aug 17 — Dozens of residents today jeered the French prime minister as he arrived in a region hit by wildfires earlier this summer, in a show of anger over the government’s handling of the worst such crisis in France in decades.

Some 200 people dressed in black gathered in front of the town hall in Le Porge in southwestern France, where 183 homes burned down when wildfires swept through the Gironde region in late July and early August, at one point even threatening the city of Bordeaux.

They jeered, whistled and shouted anti-government slogans as the tinted-window car with a flashing light carrying Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu approached for a meeting with the mayor of Le Porge, Martial Zaninetti, an AFP correspondent said.

“Where is he? Where is he?” the crowd shouted.

“It would have been the least he could do” for the prime minister to meet the residents, said Tony Veiga, a 65-year-old pensioner. “It really amounts to treating us as if we don’t matter.”

Lecornu’s office said he had spoken with affected residents and farmers.

“We have absolutely nothing to hide regarding how fire protection operations have been conducted over the past few weeks,” Lecornu said as he met local officials in the nearby town of Merignac after leaving Le Porge.

He had already visited Le Porge yesterday afternoon to tour the municipality with the mayor — a trip that had not been announced and took place without press cameras.

There is anger in the region among some residents who allege authorities prioritised fighting fires in the upscale Cap-Ferret peninsula — where many affluent Parisians take holidays — over protecting homes of local residents.

“He doesn’t want to meet us; it’s a shame. We had things we wanted to say,” said Ludivine Daurignac, organiser of a group of affected residents who plan to file complaints and get “truth, transparency, and justice”.

“We were met by lines of riot police blocking our access,” she said.

Having burned through 42,000 hectares, the fire was brought under control on August 1.

It was the largest such fire in France by surface area since 1949, with the flames coming within 15 kilometres of the Bordeaux metropolitan area and forcing the evacuation of more than 220,000 residents and tourists. — AFP