At a time when the nuclear question is dividing the candidates for the presidential election and when that of the cost of electricity is driving the political debate, Yannick Jadot affirmed, on Sunday January 16, that he wanted “Renationalize” Electricité de France (EDF) by changing its status, making it a public industrial and commercial establishment (EPIC), a status it no longer has since 2004. “What I want is for EDF to become a powerful, coherent strategic tool at the service of the energy transition”, explained the environmental candidate for the 2022 presidential election, on the set of the program “Le Grand Jury RTL-Le Figaro-LCI ».
“When the state closes a nuclear power plant, we pay astronomical compensation to EDF and the shareholders. Today, you have an EDF operator who, through government decisions, is doing hara-kiri so that Total and Engie make record profits and pay astronomical dividends to their shareholders”, he denounced. According to him, increasing the State’s share of EDF’s capital from almost 84% to 100% would cost “around 5 to 6 billion euros, it’s much cheaper”.
EDF accumulates setbacks while the government has just asked it to increase by 20% the volume of nuclear electricity sold at a reduced price to its competitors this year, in order to limit the rise in electricity prices for consumers. The company also had to extend the shutdown of some of its nuclear reactors where corrosion problems were identified and, in some cases, until the end of the year.
A commission of inquiry on Flamanville
The environmental candidate is also asking for the creation of a parliamentary commission of inquiry following the “absolute fiasco” of the Flamanville EPR, under construction since 2007 and whose start-up was scheduled for 2012. It had been postponed to the end of 2022 and has just been postponed once more “In the second quarter of 2023”, as EDF announced on Wednesday 12 January. “No one, not a minister, not an EDF official is before a commission of inquiry to justify 17 billion euros” overrun, said Mr. Jadot, on the 20 billion euros spent according to the Court of Auditors, once morest the 3.3 billion initially planned.
“Do you realize that 17 billion is almost the budget for higher education? And you have people who brew billions of euros of public money without ever being accountable”, he lamented.
At a meeting in Nantes, the candidate of La France insoumise (LFI) in the presidential election, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, also felt that it was necessary “Getting out of nuclear power, not out of ideology but because it’s dangerous”. Conversely, the far-right candidate Eric Zemmour reaffirmed on France 3, Sunday noon, that he wanted to build fourteen additional nuclear reactors and felt that it was necessary “exit from the regulated tariff”, arguing that consumers were going to pay for limiting electricity prices through taxes anyway.