He has not yet entered the campaign but, for the opposition, it is just the same. While Emmanuel Macron is due to make announcements on investment in nuclear energy on Thursday, February 10, in the followingnoon, on the occasion of a trip to Belfort, his energy policy is under fire from his competitors in the presidential election next April. Yannick Jadot denounces “electionalism” of Mr. Macron on the nuclear issue while Valérie Pécresse condemns his inconstancy on the subject and Marine Le Pen criticizes the rise in electricity prices.
This trip of the Head of state has been expected since the end of October and the presentation of the France 2030 investment plan. It comes at a particularly pivotal moment for the French energy sector, when rising energy prices are a major topic of the campaign. In addition, Electricité de France (EDF) announced on Tuesday the shutdown of three additional nuclear reactors to check for possible corrosion problems – five are currently under review. The move also comes ahead of EDF’s takeover of General Electric’s (GE) nuclear business.
Yannick Jadot denounces Emmanuel Macron’s “electionalism”
In recent days, the ecologist candidate Yannick Jadot has multiplied the attacks once morest the political orientation of the President of the Republic on this aspect. It is a “choice of the past, an obsolete choice and the choice of the fiasco”, he said, on Wednesday, regarding the defense of nuclear by the head of State, recalling the delay in the commissioning of the Flamanville EPR and the additional costs it has generated.
Guest on LCI, Mr. Jadot estimated that EDF’s takeover of General Electric’s nuclear activities was ” electoralism “from Mr. Macron, following Alstom’s energy arm was sold to General Electric in 2015, with the support of Mr. Macron, then Minister of the Economy. “Emmanuel Macron, just before the presidential election, is trying to correct the aberration of having sold Alstom to General Electric”, blasted the candidate of Europe Ecology-The Greens (EELV) before criticizing the“permanent improvisation” government.
The MEP promised, if elected to the Presidency of the Republic, to ” putting the package on energy savings, [de] deploy renewable energies and, as and when, [de] gradually close” nuclear power plants. “It’s going to take twenty years, if it’s going to take twenty-five years, it’s going to take twenty-five years”, but “I will not endanger our economy, I will not endanger families” employees, he assured. The latter also advocates the renationalization of EDF to “making it the armed arm of the energy transition ».
Attacks on energy prices and lack of strategy
On the same theme, Marine Le Pen, the candidate of the Rassemblement national (RN), criticized Emmanuel Macron’s record on energy policy. In favour of the development of nuclear power and the reduction of value added tax (VAT) on fuels, the latter also called for « release » of the European electricity market.
“That’s him [le marché européen] that poses a problem. It is he who forces EDF to sell to its competitors at cost (…). It prevents us from continuing to benefit from very low-cost electricity”, she lamented regarding Europe 1.
For his part, MrI Pécresse published a new tribune on the energy policy she plans to pursue if elected. The candidate of the Republicans considers that the outgoing head of state has passed ” symbolically the France of the XXIe in the XIXe century » by demonstrating “inconsistency and blindness”. “He shut down coal-fired power plants and made them work once more,” he said. It has weakened one of the flagships of the French economy, EDF, and a key sector for reindustrialization, that of energy “, she laments.
MI Pécresse defends a revival of nuclear power and reiterates its attacks on the tariff shield put in place by the government at the end of 2021, to contain rising energy prices, which she describes as “short-term measure”. “He will not avoid that purchasing power will be impacted following the elections, once the reality of costs is restored”, launches the President of the Ile-de-France region. She also defends the establishment of a “EDF rescue plan” .
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