As heat waves batter Europe, the need (or not) for air-conditioning has become part of the political tug of war in France between the right and the left.

A heat wave gripped parts of Europe on Monday, sending temperatures up to 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 Fahrenheit) in southern France and increasing risks of wildfires in wine country, while Bulgaria suffered blazes along its southern borders as Hungary saw record-breaking weekend temperatures and fires caused evacuations in Turkey’s northwest.

The national weather authority, Meteo-France, placed 12 departments on red alert, France’s highest heat warning, anticipating exceptional heat stretching from the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean plains. Forty-one other departments were under lower-level orange alerts, as was the neighbouring microstate of Andorra.