"I call on the mayors, the presidents of local authorities but also the companies to no longer pay their electricity bills when these increase in unacceptable proportions", announces the deputy from the North, evoking "a call for republican resistance ".
Towns and villages "which do not have access to the regulated electricity tariff are not intended to be mowed", he continues.
"What is at stake is the closing of our swimming pools, our theaters, the heating of our schools or our nursing homes. We will see if these private groups dare to cut the electricity".
Jean-Pierre Bosino, the communist mayor of Montataire, a town of 13,600 inhabitants near Creil (Oise), threatened at the end of August to "stop paying" for electricity in his town if nothing was done to relieve the communities. which, unlike individuals, are subject to the market price.
About thirty swimming pools, managed by the company Vert Marine, a public service delegate, were thus closed at the beginning of the week for lack of means to pay energy bills.
Electricity prices for 2023 on the wholesale market broke a record for France at the end of August, reaching more than 1,000 euros per megawatt/hour (MWh), against around 85 euros per MWh a year ago.
"We find ourselves in a completely crazy situation where mayors will have to choose between extracurricular activities for kids, swimming pools or paying these bills," said Ian Brossat, PCF spokesperson on Sud Radio. .
For Mr. Roussel, the State must "compensate for the difference" between the regulated tariff and that actually invoiced, France must "exit the European energy market" and "invest massively in our nuclear power plants which we have abandoned" .
"It's too easy to blame Putin and the war in Ukraine on the backs of people when you know it's the result of fifteen years of deregulation under Sarkozy, Hollande and Macron," he says.
© 2022 AFP