"Total wants to silence me in the middle of the presidential election campaign", accused the candidate on franceinfo, while the group announced on Wednesday that it was taking "defamation action without delay" against him after "unacceptable comments". , "extremely serious and unfounded" by Yannick Jadot on the group's presence in Russia.
"These lobbies that run the country, that's enough," added the candidate, lambasting the CEO of TotalEnergies Patrick Pouyanné "who intends to dictate energy policy to France, who comments on the presidential campaign".
"For 30 years, the threats of lobbies have never ceased", but "ecologists will not back down", he insisted, and "we will have to do a lot in the five-year period which comes to clean up the conflicts of interest between the private and the general interest".
He reiterated his accusations against the French oil group.
"I confirm, I persist: I accuse TotalEnergies of being complicit in war crimes in Ukraine," he said, relying on article 25 of the statutes of the International Criminal Court and the fact that , according to him, the group has "knowledge of the facts", since it "works with Russian partners very linked to the highest summit of the Putinian state", and that "through its activities it contributes to financing groups very linked to this war".
Yannick Jadot denounced "the absolute cynicism" of Mr. Pouyanné who, "sobs in his voice, talks to us about his employees", but is in fact "angry on behalf of his shareholders".
"He talks about his employees and the fighters in Ukraine, but the only way to help these Ukrainian fighters (...) is to embargo Russian gas and oil," repeated the candidate.
"We cannot look at the bombardments of pediatric hospitals, theaters, the major humanitarian crisis and say to ourselves + by the end of the year I will make a small gesture +", he insisted.
The group announced on Tuesday the cessation of all purchases of Russian oil or petroleum products "at the latest by the end of the year 2022".
© 2022 AFP