Emmanuelle Béart is involved with the collective "Stop energy exclusion" which is mobilized against fuel poverty.

On Europe 1, Wednesday, the actress explains the importance of fighting against this situation which concerns several million households in France.

She denounces insufficient aid.

INTERVIEW

"Great emotion and anger."

This is what Emmanuelle Béart felt when she discovered the reality of fuel poverty in many French households.

A situation which concerns "12 million people, 6 million households, who live in extremely harsh conditions".

On behalf of the collective "Stop energy exclusion", she calls for donations and more broadly for solidarity in order to fight against this scourge, as she mentioned Wednesday evening on Europe 1.

"A call for donations, but also for volunteers and equipment"

Emmanuelle Béart explains that her role is above all "to make visible people who are invisible, who are ashamed to talk about their precariousness".

A situation which manifests itself in various forms and which often leads to a vicious circle with "unsanitary houses, where there is mold, where clothes and sheets are wet, the toilets are inaccessible and people are cold".

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The Covid crisis only reinforces the gravity of the situation for these inhabitants, because "these unsanitary homes must become the workplace, the school or the place of care. It becomes quite unbearable."

It is by becoming aware of these realities that the actress decided to mobilize herself with the collective in order to launch "an appeal for donations, but also for volunteers and equipment". 

Families who are "ashamed" of their situation

Emmanuelle Béart went to meet the French people who live in these conditions before getting involved.

She explains to Isabelle Millet's microphone having "met a lot of people who were losing their jobs, children who have extremely serious difficulties at school and elderly people who are very afraid of aging in these conditions".

Her first visit particularly marked her, because she met a couple who explained that they were "ashamed to invite her children and grandchildren".

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An experience that provoked in her "great emotion, anger too, to tell me that in a rich country like ours, one of the six richest powers in the world, so many people could live in extremely difficult conditions. ".

Especially since she was able to see how a renovation changed the lives of the families who benefited from it. 

"The 10% that remains dependent for the family are quite unbearable"

And if Emmanuelle Béart recognizes that "the State and the local authorities do things", just like the NGOs, she considers that this is not enough.

Because to put an end to energy poverty, everything must be renovated.

"The renovation must be complete for it to be sustainable."

And in this area, money is the sinews of war. 

However, even with the new government aid, the account is not there.

"When we are eligible and we can put together a case, we manage to complete about 90% of the sum. But the 10% which remains to be borne by the family are quite unbearable," she explains. .

The last step is therefore sometimes the most difficult to take and it is for this reason that the actress has put her notoriety for the benefit of the collective.