For more than two hours, the candidate of the Union populaire Jean-Luc Mélenchon answered questions of France 2’s political program “Elysée 2022”, Thursday February 10. The True of False Cell scrutinizes three of his statements.
>>> Presidential 2022: the five sequences to remember from the interview with Jean-Luc Mélenchon in “Elysée 2022”
“Healthy life expectancy is falling, it’s a fact”: it’s not true
On retirement, the rebellious candidate proposes the return of retirement at age 60 because “it’s not free”, in his view, to keep people working. To prove it, he advanced this argument: “Healthy life expectancy is falling, it’s a fact.” In reality, this is false. Life expectancy in good health is fairly stable in France. It has even increased slightly since the 2000s, according to INSEE figures. For example, men have gained two years of healthy life expectancy to reach just over 63.5 years. For women, we are 64.5 years old. France is quite close, even if it is a little below, the European average.
“There is an article in the Commercial Code which allows prices to be blocked”: true but difficult to implement
To limit the rise in energy prices, Jean-Luc Mélenchon proposes price freezes. “That is the easiest because there is an article of the Commercial Code which makes this operation possible. There is not even a need to convene parliament, it is an article of the code, so by decree, I decide that energy prices are frozen.” This article really exists, it is article 410-2 of the Commercial Code, it authorizes the government to freeze prices but it is not so simple to put in place. It is necessary “a crisis situation or exceptional circumstances”
and the precedents are not so numerous. This has been the case for hydroalcoholic gel and surgical masks, the prices of which have been capped since the start of the pandemic. For fuel, the last example dates back to the 1990s because of the Gulf War era. More recently, in 2011, François Hollande had promised before giving up because of regulatory conditions “too precise”said the government at the time.
“No EPR in the world works”: this is inaccurate
Jean-Luc Mélenchon also mentioned nuclear power. He expressed himself precisely on the construction of EPR, announced by Emmanuel Macron, and denounced by the rebellious candidate. “As you know the EPRs are built by the great architect Numérobis, who therefore took 10 years of delay and 10 billion rab for the only EPR which still does not work in our country, nor anywhere in the world. .” This is rather false because there is indeed an EPR reactor operating in China. On the other hand, it is true that the EPRs have experienced many setbacks, whether in Finland, the United Kingdom or Flamanville in France: the sites have all fallen behind schedule and the bills are higher than expected.