France: EDF unions are back to attack the Hercule reorganization project
Power lines near Valenciennes, in Hauts-de-France (illustrative image).
REUTERS - Pascal Rossignol
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
This is the fourth mobilization in two months.
All the EDF unions are calling for a new strike on Tuesday January 19 to protest against the highly contested Hercules project.
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The Hercules project could lead to the split of the electrician into three entities: a public company for nuclear power plants, another listed on the stock exchange for the distribution of electricity and renewable energies, and a third which would house the hydroelectric dams.
►Also read: France: EDF on strike against a reorganization project
Its aim is to dismantle EDF, believes François Hommeril, president of the CFE-CGC.
“
Everything that is coherent, everything that forms a system in EDF, its ability to deliver electricity to any point in France and even overseas at the same price, its ability to make intermittent energy production consistent with the nuclear.
All this is in fact switched and put on the market, and this will weaken the company, in that it also represents a weapon in the arm of the politician,
”he said.
Economic sovereignty
François Hommeril, of the CFE-CGC, also notes that
“
electricity, the cost of energy, the production of energy, its availability, is something that is central to the question of economic sovereignty.
And that the State abandons this sovereignty in this capacity, because I believe that is also the assessment that can be made of it, it is nevertheless also very worrying
”.
There is nothing to influence, however, the position of the government, which had commissioned this project from Jean-Bernard Lévy.
"
Today, EDF is going against the wall if we are not able to give it the means to invest
", declared Bruno Le Maire on Tuesday during his greetings to the press.
“
My responsibility as Minister of the Economy and Finance is to give EDF (...) the means to develop and remain one of the largest energy companies on the planet.
That is the objective,
”he insisted, denying any desire for“
dismantling
”.
But the project, which was initially to be presented at the end of 2019, has fallen behind schedule because it is conditioned on the progress of discussions between France and Brussels, in particular on nuclear.
"
We are not there yet
", admitted Bruno Le Maire, who undertook to report to trade unions on the situation "as
soon as we have a clearer vision of the final position of the European Commission
".
Letters to local elected officials
Last Tuesday, the bosses of the CFDT, CGT, FO and CFE-CGC confederations called on President Emmanuel Macron "
to hear and measure this very strong social mobilization by renouncing the Hercules project
".
In the event of a parliamentary debate, the trade union federations have prepared the ground in recent months by sending numerous letters to local elected officials.
Debates were held at the request of the communist groups in the Assembly and the Senate and, on Friday, the inter-federal had a videoconference meeting, at the initiative of the PCF elected official Sébastien Jumel, with deputies from the main groups opposition.
Will the French be called upon to express themselves directly?
The head of PS deputies, Valérie Rabault, has announced her intention to table a proposed shared initiative referendum (RIP) against the Hercules project.
Who, to see the light of day, will have to overcome as many obstacles as the demigod to whom he owes his name.
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