“President in zigzag”, “man of the lobbies”: many political reactions after the announcement of the nuclear revival by Emmanuel Macron – lemonde.fr

It is a short sentence pronounced by Emmanuel Macron, Tuesday, November 9, which triggered many political reactions the day after his address to the population. “We will, for the first time in decades, relaunch the construction of nuclear reactors in our country and continue to develop renewable energies”, declared the President of the Republic, without giving details on the scale of the recovery or the planned deployment schedule.

“If we want to pay for our energy at reasonable rates and not depend on foreign countries, we must both continue to save energy and invest in the production of carbon-free energy on our soil”, also declared the Head of State, who reaffirmed his support for nuclear energy in recent months, especially from a climate point of view.

A speech on this subject should take place “In the coming weeks to give technical details, on the type of reactor, and schedule”government spokesman Gabriel Attal told Franceinfo on Wednesday morning. It is expected since the delivery ofa report commissioned from the national manager of the Electricity Transmission Network (RTE), on October 25. A vast study which establishes six scenarios contributing to achieving the objective of carbon neutrality in energy production in France, five of which include a large proportion of nuclear power.

“Nuclear power is the pompom”

” We are ready “, said the Chairman and CEO of Electricité de France (EDF), Jean-Bernard Lévy, Wednesday morning, in reaction to these announcements. Five months before the presidential election, opposition politicians have castigated the direction taken by Mr. Macron. ” He has closed [la centrale nucléaire de] Fessenheim and we gave up [le projet de réacteur à neutrons] Astrid “, said the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, on France 2, summarizing in these two points the results of the action of the executive since 2017.

“Nuclear power is the pompom”, was also exasperated Valérie Pécresse, candidate for the congress of the party Les Républicains (LR) to designate the representative of the right-wing movement in the presidential election. “We have a zigzag president, who announced the closure of twelve power plants and who, now, because the right is putting pressure on him (…), wants to forget the failure of his five-year term where he will not have solved any of these three problems: energy independence, getting back to work, pension reform ”, criticized the president of the regional council of Ile-de-France on France Inter.

M^me Pécresse then put forward proposals going in a direction comparable to that of Mr. Macron: zero carbon objective in 2050, revival of nuclear power with the construction of six EPR-type reactors and of SMR mini-plants coupled with a “Maximum of[énergies] renewable ”. “If we accept the decrease in nuclear power, it’s only six reactors. If we have ambition, in the name of the sovereignty of my country, it’s ten ”, for his part exposed Xavier Bertrand, another candidate for the LR congress. “If we want to stay at 70% and not at 50% [de part de nucléaire dans le mix énergétique], it takes ten “, commented the president of the Hauts-de-France regional council on RTL.

“No EPR will save us from the crisis”

“Nuclear power is above all necessary in order not to change anything (…) to our mode of consumption, our way of life and our energy consumption ”, criticized, conversely, Sandrine Rousseau, president of the political council in charge of the strategy of the candidate of Europe Ecology-The Greens, Yannick Jadot. “There is no EPR that will save us from the crisis. It is really locking oneself into a development model which is completely outdated and which puts us in danger ”, estimated the economist in an interview with Public Senate.

Mr. Jadot, currently in Glasgow for COP26, commented on the presidential announcement on Twitter : “Emmanuel Macron is decidedly the man of the lobbies. Whatever the cost for the climate, it allies itself with coal Poland. Whatever the cost for the French, it is the agent of nuclear power, an electricity twice as expensive as that of renewable energies. [énergies renouvelables]. “ During the environmentalist primary, the MEP had said wish for an exit from nuclear power “Responsibly, that is to say over fifteen or twenty years”.

“Nuclear power is not a lobby, it is French know-how”, retorted the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, on France Inter. “We will need new nuclear reactors to succeed in achieving carbon neutrality in the years to come”, he continued by supporting the announcements of the President of the Republic. “How many will it take?” Is it six, eight, ten? I can not tell you. It will depend on the level of ambition we set for ourselves ”, said Mr. Le Maire, calling for a referral to the RTE report on the issue. “He indicates that, except to go down the path of degrowth, which cannot be the right path, in my opinion, for the country, then we need a mix [entre énergie nucléaire et énergies renouvelables] “, concludes the Minister.