“I have no reason to make a mea culpa” on the policy carried out, believes François Hollande

“I have no reason to do a mea-culpa” on the nuclear policy carried out between 2012 and 2017, estimated Tuesday March 14 on franceinfo, the former President of the Republic, François Hollande, while the National Assembly on Monday March 13 abolished the objective of reducing to 50% of the share of nuclear energy in the French energy mix by 2035, introduced in the law of 2015.

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The former president assumes and “claim again” her “political objective”. This reduction in nuclear power was the result of the political agreement reached a few months before the 2012 presidential election between Martine Aubry’s Socialist Party and Cécile Duflot’s Europe Écologie-Les Verts. “Beyond the agreement with the Greens, I considered that it was necessary to have a political objective”, justifies François Hollande. France “couldn’t, shouldn’t, go nuclear”but it was necessary “have an electric mix”, he hammers. He recalls that he has “no plant closed during the period of [son] mandate”and that it was necessary “raise renewable energies”.

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According to him, the decision to close the Fessenheim nuclear power plant was linked “on the condition that Flamanville opens”. “Nuclear production was stable”, he explains. Therefore, for the former President, “there was no question of closing power plants”without a request from the Nuclear Safety Authority. “This is what is happening, alas, since there are, today, a certain number of facts which have been revealed on power plants – not necessarily the oldest – of corrosion, cracks and that the Nuclear Safety Authority has to ask EDF to carry out work”notes François Hollande.

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Like the former President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande will be heard Thursday, March 16, by the commission of inquiry in the Assembly on the loss of energy sovereignty of France.