Emmanuel Macron's energy policy is at the heart of the campaign on Thursday, February 10, with the Head of State's trip to Belfort, where he will unveil his nuclear recovery plan and, more generally, his energy strategy for France.
The main announcement of the President of the Republic, not yet officially a candidate for re-election, must relate to the construction of a series of new second-generation EPR nuclear reactors.
From a source close to the executive, the order to EDF could go up to six EPR2 reactors with an option for eight additional reactors, or 14 in total.
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France is currently building only one new nuclear reactor, the EPR in Flamanville (Manche), the construction of which, started in 2007, has still not been completed and for which EDF has announced new delays and additional costs.
Nuclear power, "it's ecological, it allows us to produce carbon-free electricity, it contributes to our energy independence and it produces electricity that is very competitive", sums up the Elysée.
“Costly and dangerous” energy
A position castigated by the environmental candidate Yannick Jadot, who describes Emmanuel Macron's choices as "obsolete".
In an interview with Liberation, Wednesday, then another on LCI, the candidate of the Greens multiplied the attacks against the energy policy of the president.
It is an "obsolete choice and the choice of fiasco", he declared, recalling the years of delay in the commissioning of the Flamanville EPR and the additional costs.
On the left, most candidates agree on phasing out nuclear power, but they differ on the timetable.
Yannick Jadot wants to move quickly and shut down at least ten reactors by 2035. To compensate for the drop in production that this measure would cause, he intends to massively develop renewable energy, in particular with the installation of 6,000 wind turbines and the replacement of wind turbines. to strengthen them by 2027, as well as the obligation for each "living area" to launch a "citizen community of renewable energy"
Even if the socialist candidate, Anne Hidalgo, shares with him the ambition to reach 100% renewable energies "as soon as possible", the mayor of Paris admitted that it would be impossible to achieve this before 2050. She considers it "nonsense" to close ten reactors by 2035. "I do not want to question national sovereignty in energy matters", she assures, while specifying that she does not new reactors.
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The candidate of La France insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, plans for 2045 the total exit from nuclear power, an energy which he considers "expensive and dangerous".
He therefore advocates 100% renewable energy, in particular via geothermal energy, the massive development of offshore wind turbines and water mills.
He also wants to get out of fossil fuels, by stopping subsidizing them, including abroad.
On the other hand, the communist, Fabien Roussel, has a different position from the other left-wing candidates on nuclear power.
To achieve his goal of “a carbon-free France in 2050”, he intends to “invest massively in renewable energies but also in nuclear power”.
"I'm the only one on the left to say it," he insists.
"Massive nuclear remobilization"
On the right, nuclear is not a matter of debate.
Starting from the observation that wind energy "has reached or even exceeded the threshold of tolerance of the population", the candidate Les Républicains at the Élysée, Valérie Pécresse, recommends setting up a "Gaullian recovery plan for energy" with "a massive remobilization of nuclear".
She intends to "formally" oppose the planned closures of power plants and castigates Emmanuel Macron's "zig-zag" energy policy.
Far-right candidates are also pro-nuclear.
Marine Le Pen defends it as "safe, cheap and clean energy" and attacks certain wind farms as "warts" on the landscape.
It wants to create six new EPRs and wants a moratorium on the dismantling of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant which it wants to reopen.
The candidate of the National Rally has also called for "exit" from the European electricity market.
"It is he who poses a problem. He is the one who forces EDF to sell to its competitors at cost price (..). He prevents us from continuing to benefit from electricity at very low cost", said she lamented, Wednesday, on Europe 1.
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As for Éric Zemmour, he goes further than his opponents by proposing the opening of "fourteen EPR nuclear reactors by 2050" and the extension to "60 years" of the life of the plants.
On the renewable energy side, he intends to "stop all wind turbines. It's a disaster, it's awful, it makes French landscapes ugly", he laments.
This electoral debate on energy comes two days after EDF announced the shutdown of three additional nuclear reactors to check for possible corrosion problems, in addition to the five currently under review.
With AFP
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