Agnès Pannier-Runacher, a “good student” of Macron’s Ecological Transition

After a brief reinforcement in Agriculture, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, a member of the left wing of the presidential camp and technical pillar of the Macronian governments, was again entrusted with thorny issues linked to the climate crisis by taking the lead of the Ecological Transition and Energy.

This senior civil servant by training, elected as a deputy for the first time in July in Arras, will therefore not sit in the National Assembly.

At 50, “APR” succeeds Christophe Béchu at the Hôtel de Roquelaure, where several pending issues await him: the transition of territories despite budget cuts, the national plan for adaptation to climate change, etc.

Its portfolio is expanded: in addition to the ecological transition, it includes energy, climate and risk prevention.

This HEC and Sciences Po graduate was first a finance inspector after graduating from the Ecole nationale d’administration (ENA), before working for the Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, the Caisse des dépôts and BpiFrance.

She then joined the private sector in 2011, with the equipment manufacturer Faurecia and then in 2013 with Compagnie des Alpes, the world leader in ski areas.

Her political involvement dates back to 2017, when she supported candidate Emmanuel Macron, whom she had met ten years earlier. “She doesn’t hide the fact that she used to vote left,” says her official biography.

In October 2018, she entered the government through a discreet door, the Secretary of State for the Economy.

Having moved to Industry in 2020, she managed the ravages of factory closures, then shortages linked to Covid. Thanks to the recovery plan, she is carrying the beginnings of a reindustrialization that would be green and decarbonized, encouraging women to embrace industrial careers.

But it is at the newly created Ministry of Energy Transition that she gains notoriety, from May 2022. Responsible for putting France’s energy strategy on track, which enshrines the revival of nuclear power, she must also manage the threats of a blackout in the winter of 2022/2023 or the surge in energy prices…

At the European level, she advocates a reform of the electricity market preserving French nuclear power. Responsible for international climate negotiations, she defends nuclear power at COP28 in Dubai in 2023.

– Newly elected –

PS MP Philippe Brun, who is very active on the EDF issue, praises her “combativeness”, but also sees her “good student” side: “She was able to bring about the change in position of the President of the Republic on nuclear power.”

In the energy world, his knowledge of the issues and his “accessible” nature are praised.

“With great tenacity, personal commitment and time for debate, she succeeded in getting texts passed that were not a foregone conclusion,” stressed Jules Nyssen, from the Renewable Energy Union, when he left the ministry in February.

At the time, she was appointed Minister Delegate for Agriculture, in support of the incumbent Marc Fesneau, who was embroiled in the agricultural crisis.

There, she takes charge of the overhaul of the Ecophyto plan on pesticides, the controversial new indicator supposed to measure the reduction in their use and the search for alternatives.

She also defends the construction, which has been criticized, of water reservoirs for agriculture. And she is investing in farmers’ income (via the commercial negotiations file), while opposing the floor prices demanded by the Confédération paysanne because they are considered impracticable.

Despite a “conquering” state of mind, according to a witness of her first steps at Bercy, she will wait until 2020 to rub shoulders with the electorate. Her first attempt, on a Macronist list in Paris in 2020, was a failure.

In 2022, she plans to take on the National Rally in Lens, in the mining basin. But it is ultimately her partner, Nicolas Bays, a former PS MP for Pas-de-Calais where they formed a blended family, who will lead the battle – in vain.

Taking advantage of the dissolution, she ran as a candidate in the Arras constituency and won against the RN after the withdrawal of the New Popular Front candidate in the second round.

With the political and media exposure also came revelations about shares held by her children in the oil company Perenco linked to tax havens, in connection with their maternal grandfather. The High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP) has since cleared the minister.

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© 2024 AFP

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