"Here, we are not afraid of the power plant, we grew up with it".

At 45, Sophie Wendling remembers with nostalgia the time when "we went on vacation with EDF", thanks to the energy company's works council, and its generous subsidies.

"Now it's over, our children will never know all that," laments this 45-year-old hairdresser with an impeccable permanent haircut who still does not understand the dismantling scheduled by the executive, who invoked "prohibitive costs" to restore state the oldest power plant in the country installed on the highest water table in Europe.

"Today, France must buy more expensive electricity abroad, when we had the capacity to produce it here," she says.

So, in the next presidential election, there is no question of supporting an anti-nuclear candidate who invokes the dangers of the atom such as the Fukushima accident: "We want to drive electric, but we could no longer produce electricity? It's unrealistic."

The two reactors of the former Fessenheim nuclear power plant in the Haut-Rhin, February 21, 2020 SEBASTIEN BOZON AFP / Archives

In this territory where the far right regularly scores high, energy policy is a determining factor in the vote.

In Fessenheim in 2017, Marine Le Pen, opposed to the closure of the power plant, had finished in the lead in both rounds, when Emmanuel Macron only came third, behind François Fillon and followed by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, two ardent pro-nuclear.

According to the electoral posters posted in the city, all in favor of the candidate of the National Rally, similar results are to be expected in April.

Marine Le Pen has also affirmed her wish to "reopen Fessenheim" if she entered the Elysée.

"Not Sheep"

But this promise, widely commented on elsewhere, annoys locally: the inhabitants have seen the exceptional convoys evacuate the gigantic rotors of the power plant's turbo-alternators and no longer have any real hope of seeing them return.

"We are not sheep, it's not because she says that that we will vote for her, we think for ourselves", laughs Bilal Morchid, manager of the Eclipse restaurant, in the neighboring town. of Rumersheim-le-Haut.

Dismantling of a turbine at the Fessenheim nuclear power plant in the Haut-Rhin, February 21, 2020 SEBASTIEN BOZON AFP / Archives

At 48, he has lost a lot with the departure of EDF employees and service providers.

"It was a knee in the stomach. It was 90% of our customers at lunchtime. We called them by their first name, the atmosphere was beautiful. When they said + it's our last meal +, that freaked us out."

Today, his establishment is on sale and he is trying to develop a new project.

"We survive. If we don't move forward, we are dead".

However, the local economic impact of the plant's closure remains limited.

With the departure of 370 EDF agents (50% of the workforce), it is a windfall of 5 million euros annually which is no longer spent in shops, according to a study of the region.

But the aid linked to the pandemic has generally made it possible to limit the damage.

And if Fessenheim lost a hundred inhabitants in 2020, out of 2,400, the 70 new homes in the "Garden of Poets", a brand new housing estate, quickly found takers.

A new district must also see the light of day, in one or two years.

"The village is developing despite everything, we have a lot of interaction with Germany", underlines Dominique Schelcher, the director of the Super U of the commune, also the CEO of the group.

"I have always believed in this territory. Moreover, I am investing 5 million euros to expand the store".

The exit from the city of Fessenheim in the Haut-Rhin, in the background the former nuclear power plant, on June 27, 2020 SEBASTIEN BOZON AFP / Archives

The politicians' promises have not been kept, he laments, however.

“There must have been as many new jobs as positions cut at the plant. There is not a single one”.

The succession is late.

Within the perimeter of the plant, an EDF technocentre project, if it materializes, will not be commissioned before 2031, while the new EcoRhena industrial zone is still at the public inquiry stage.

Electoral "ping pong"

"We are left behind", summarizes the mayor, Claude Brender.

He would like Fessenheim to become an experimental site for small modular reactors.

"We already have the infrastructure, the land, and a population aware of the atom", he pleads.

Above all, he calls for an energy policy thought "over the long term", rather than the current "ping-pong at each election".

The mayor of Fessenheim in the Haut-Rhin, Claude Brender, takes part in a demonstration by elected officials from the region, on February 22, 2020 SEBASTIEN BOZON AFP / Archives

"It's been 15 years since Fessenheim has been an electoral issue," he fumes.

Disillusioned by the headliners, he intends to bring his sponsorship to the entrepreneur Rafik Smati, candidate for the movement "Objective France", after having been solicited from all sides, lastly by Eric Zemmour who came to meet him on Thursday.

There is still a file that local elected officials would like to see completed before the presidential election: taxation.

The shutdown of nuclear production leads to the loss of 6.3 million euros in annual tax revenue for the community of municipalities.

This one therefore battles to no longer have to pay 2.9 million each year to the State, as in the good times of the power station.

© 2022 AFP