This decision should allow the State to regain control over the production of electricity, justified the Prime Minister to the deputies.
This is an important announcement, aimed at giving back to the French State control of its electricity production. During her general policy speech to the National Assembly, the Prime Minister confirmed that France should “to take decisions strong, radical” for “winning the battle for energy and production“. The government therefore wisheshold 100% of EDF’s capital“, announced Elisabeth Borne.
While the energy transition will go through an electrification of uses to move away from polluting energies, the Prime Minister repeated her support for nuclear power. Renationalizing the tricolor energy giant should allow the state to take back the “full control of electricity production and its performance“, while defending the “sovereigntyfrom France.
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Élisabeth Borne also followed in the footsteps of her predecessors with this policy, arguing that renationalisation would allow the group to have sufficient funds to “carry out ambitious and essential projects for our energy future“. The coming decades promise to be busy for the group, as electricity production will have to increase sharply and the construction of new reactors was confirmed by Emmanuel Macron in Belfort last February. “The State will assume its responsibilities to ensure EDF’s short-term and medium-term financing capacity“, then assured the head of state.
The state is already the majority shareholder in EDF: it now owns some 83.88% of the total, according to group figures. Individual and institutional shareholders represent an additional 15.03%, and employee shareholders 1.06%. Unsurprisingly, this announcement boosted the action of the energy company, which jumped more than 5% on the Paris Stock Exchange. The declaration of the Prime Minister was also applauded by the majority, as well as by the elected representatives of the Democratic and Republican Left (GDR) group, including Fabien Roussel, Communist candidate in the last presidential election.
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