Green MPs speak with one voice. On the same line as La France insoumise, the Greens have already affirmed their opposition to the bill aimed at speeding up administrative procedures for new nuclear reactors.
“The commitment to phase out nuclear power”, a principle enshrined in the statutes of Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV), is however increasingly arousing debate among certain sympathizers. Even among members.
“Today, some people convinced of their climate commitment consider nuclear power as an option”recognized Yannick Jadot, environmental candidate for the 2022 presidential election (4.6% of the vote), on March 10, at the Paris headquarters of EELV. “The nuclear lobby instrumentalized the climate issue to revive itself, and it worked… The fault of environmentalists since Fukushima [l’accident au Japon, en 2011, à la suite d’un tsunami], is to have believed that we had won the battle. »
This March 10, the Greens had invited the press to listen to a panel of specialists in the anti-nuclear fight, in particular from the Négawatt association and Greenpeace. With one objective, that of conducting this “cultural battle” against nuclear power, in the words of Marine Tondelier, national secretary of the party since December 2022. It was a question of dismantling the argument presenting the atom as a low-carbon energy. Among other criticisms made of the main source of electricity in the country: the safety of power plants, radioactive waste or the cost of future construction sites.
“Feeling of anxiety”
Marine Tondelier would like to launch a “citizens’ agreement” on the subject : “I am ready to mortgage my house to say that if it were necessary to issue an informed opinion, fed by experts from all sides, it would not be in favor of nuclear power”, she says. In recent months, opinion polls have however reported feelings increasingly favorable to the atom. Including among some of EELV sympathizers: 46% of those questioned even declared themselves in favor of the construction of new reactors, in addition to renewable energies such as wind or solar, according to an Elabe poll of November 2022.
“It was explained to the French that there would be no more electricity this winter. Faced with this feeling of anguish, you cling to the branch”believes Yannick Jadot, himself a former head of Greenpeace.
Among the members contacted by The world, several do not wish to appear by name. Some see new reactors as a necessary “evil”. Others simply want the exploitation of existing ones, without hasty exit. “Most of the time we get a barrage of fire with a whole list of basic anti-nuclear arguments that are Greenpeace’s,” regrets Frédéric Bec, 50, member of Occitanie. He believes that nuclear should not be made a priority to fight. “The climate emergency is the fight against carbon, not the fight against the atom”he considers.
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