This isn't really true. Heat stress deaths in Europe are comparitively rare, or were until urbanization and climate change became bigger factors.

They still do. More Europeans die every year from heat-related injuries than Americans do from guns.

I've wanted an AC, but I cannot get one. This apartment is just not equipped for it, it literally cannot handle multiple ACs (the cables are old, yadda yadda).

And you have to get lots of permits to have an AC installed legally. If you do not have a permit, you will have to pay a really hefty fee when the inspectors come.

So yeah, buying an AC is what most people would do, but they do not because of the damn permits they most likely will not get. It is a shitty situation.

Spaniard here. Don't lecture Southern Europeans on surviving heat when the church of the village of my parents predates America itself (and it's pretty fresh inside in Summer).