Combative as usual, Jean-Luc Mélenchon responded for more than two hours to questions from journalists from France Télévisions, Thursday, February 10, in “Elysée 2022”, the France 2 program for the presidential election.
>> Presidential: the sequences to remember from the passage of Jean-Luc Mélenchon in “Elysée 2022”
The candidate of La France insoumise made some statements that deserve verification or clarification. Sometimes his claims have turned out to be inaccurate, false or unverifiable. Others are correct, but deserve context. Here are seven quotes from Jean-Luc Mélenchon examined by our True or Fake unit.
1Is the “main cause” of the Covid-19 pandemic “the agricultural model that leads to deforestation”? Impossible to say
“What is the main cause? It is social. An agricultural model that leads to deforestation, which brings wild animals to domestic animals which pass viruses which then pass them to human beings. It’s called zoonosis.”
Jean-Luc Melenchonin “Elysée 2022”
An animal origin of Sars-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, is indeed one of the two possible explanations for the appearance of the pandemic, as explained in our article on the investigation into the origin of the virus. virus. It is not the only one, but it is favored by the scientific community over the second hypothesis, that of a laboratory accident.
Is it related to deforestation? This is what scientists who track emerging viruses say, as in this report from last April. By bringing wild animals closer to where they live, deforestation increases the risk of zoonoses, ie the passage of viruses from animals to humans.
2Had coronavirus research been ‘stopped’ since 2008? rather wrong
“We stopped [la recherche fondamentale] since 2008 on the category of virus that there is currently because it was too expensive.
Jean-Luc Melenchonin “Elysée 2022”
In France, research on coronaviruses began in the early 2000s, when SARS appeared, recalls the site The Conversation. After the epidemic, “interest in Sars-CoV had disappeared. (…) We then had difficulty funding our research”conceded Bruno Canard, research director at the CNRS and specialist in coronaviruses, in The world (paid item). However, research on coronaviruses in France has not completely stopped, recalls The Conversation.
3Has the number of people on the streets doubled in the last two five-year terms and are there 2,000 street deaths each year? Rather true
“It has doubled over the last two five years, we have gone from 120,000 people to 300,000. Now we have 2,000 people a year who die in the streets.”
Jean-Luc Melenchonin “Elysée 2022”
The number of people in the street in France put forward by Jean-Luc Mélenchon corresponds more or less to an estimate from the Abbé Pierre Foundation in 2020: it then counted 328,000 homeless people and compared its count to that of INSEE in 2012, which then counted 143,000. It therefore observes an even stronger evolution than a doubling.
In The World (paid article)the Abbé Pierre Foundation added a nuance: “This is not an Insee survey, and the difference in methodology therefore does not completely allow a comparison. However, the increase is so spectacular that the order of magnitude of the increase is proven.” Moreover, these two censuses are not limited to people who are currently homeless: nearly 90% have no home but are people in “general accommodation” Where “accommodated in the national reception system”.
The count of the number of deaths each year in the street is more uncertain, as already explained LCI. In 2020, the collective Les Morts de la rue counted 670 deaths homeless or formerly homeless people. But he says that this number is largely underestimated, due to the difficulty of identifying them. A study by Inserm between 2008 and 2010 calculated that the counts of this collective were underestimated by 83%. By applying this percentage to the figure for 2020, we arrive at a balance sheet close to 3,500 dead, higher than that given by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. But this calculation is approximate, because the efficiency of the census may have evolved since 2010.
4Do five great fortunes have a heritage comparable to the total heritage of 27 million French people? True
“Five people own as much as 27 million French people.”
Jean-Luc Melenchonin “Elysée 2022”
The candidate of La France insoumise did not explain on what sources he based his calculation. According to magazine estimate Capitalthe combined fortunes of the five richest French people in 2021 (Bernard Arnault, Axel Dumas, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, Alain and Gérard Wertheimer) represent 361.45 billion euros.
The estimated wealth of these five French people is indeed greater than the wealth of the 27 million French people who have the least (40% of the population). By taking the average of the first four deciles of this INSEE table (the first 40 percent), we obtain an average net wealth of 12,875 euros.
Multiplied by 27 million, the total reaches 347.63 billion euros. Less than the combined fortune of the five French people mentioned above. Remember, however, that the ranking of Capital is an estimate: it would be more accurate to compare two totals calculated in the same way, but INSEE does not calculate the individual wealth of the richest French people.
5Has life expectancy in good health declined with longer working hours? False
“We live longer because we work less time. And since we have been working longer, or rather since we have registered people as unemployed longer, the situation is deteriorating and there is a decline in hope of life.”
Jean-Luc Melenchonin “Elysée 2022”
This is what Jean-Luc Mélenchon said to support his desire to bring the retirement age back to 60. A little earlier, developing this reasoning, he had mentioned more specifically “healthy life expectancy” :
“It’s not free to keep people working. Because they can’t find work, so they go on unemployment insurance. Since they can’t find work, and they’re unhappy, they get sick. And healthy life expectancy goes down. Those are facts.”
Jean-Luc Melenchonin “Elysée 2022”
However, this is not what the INSEE datawho measured “the number of healthy years a person can expect to live (at birth), given current health conditions”. In 2019, healthy life expectancy was 63.7 years for a man and 64.6 years for a woman. By way of comparison, in 2010, this indicator stood at 61.8 for men and 63.3 for women.
6Has the ban on grinding male chicks been pushed back to ‘the end of the year’? True.
“We crush 50 million alive [de poussins mâles] per year. We had to stop [cette pratique] on January 1, at the end of January, we saw a decree arrive saying that it could continue until the end of the year. Well, I’m not okay with that kind of stuff anymore.”
Jean-Luc Melenchonin “Elysée 2022”
The ban on the grinding of male chicks was actually due to come into force on January 1, 2022, as we revealed last July. One decree published on February 6 in the Official Journal finally took action to ban this practice, but granted hatcheries a period of time to change their practices.
The producers have until December 31, 2022 to equip yourself with ovosexing machines. This equipment makes it possible to determine the sex of the embryos in the egg and therefore to eliminate the males before hatching. According to the decree, the hatcheries will have to justify during the year that they have ordered these ovosexing machines and started the work to install them. A fine is provided for offenders.
7Is there no EPR in operation in the world? Inaccurate
“The unique EPR [ne] still does not work in our country. Nor for that matter anywhere in the world.”
Jean-Luc Melenchonin “Elysée 2022”
Jean-Luc Mélenchon returned to Emmanuel Macron’s wish to build six new generation EPR2 reactors. The rebellious candidate referred to the Flamanville shipyard (Manche), “the only EPR which still does not work in our country”, “nor anywhere else in the world”. In France, the Flamanville EPR is still under construction and is now 11 years behind schedule. Under construction since 2007, it must now be delivered to the “second quarter 2023”announced the EDF group on 12 January.
Abroad, the Finnish electrician TVO announced on February 3 to postpone by one month the production of electricity from the EPR nuclear reactor of Olkiluoto-3, twelve years after the date of commissioning initially planned. The Hinkley Point construction site in the United Kingdom is also experiencing delays.
In the end, only two EPR reactors came into operation in the world, those of the Taishan power plant in China. One of them, however, was shut down in July 2021 following an incident.