“A Call to Republican Resistance.” The national secretary of the PCF, Fabien Roussel, called Thursday, September 8 town halls, local authorities and companies not to “pay their electricity bills”in an interview with Parisianin a context where “these are increasing to unacceptable proportions”.
Cities and towns “who do not have access to the regulated electricity tariff are not intended to be mowed”continued the deputy from the North. “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), had threatened at the end of August “to stop paying” electricity in his city if nothing were done to relieve communities which, unlike individuals, are subject to market prices, without a tariff shield.
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”, declared for his part Ian Brossat, spokesperson for the PCF, on the antenna of Sud Radio. For Fabien Roussel, the State must “make up the difference” between the regulated tariff and that actually invoiced, France must “exit from the European energy market” and “invest massively in our nuclear power plants that we have abandoned”.