Save money and avoid the “blackout”. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne brings together this Thursday, October 6, 2022 some 400 directors of administrations and business leaders from all sectors of activity. World of sport, work, administrations, businesses, industries … All sectors have been called upon: the French government presents its energy sobriety plan on Thursday, intended to prepare for a difficult winter, without Russian gas and with many nuclear reactors stopped .
>> LIVE. Energy crisis: the government presents its sobriety plan, follow the announcements of Elisabeth Borne and her ministers
From “dozens of bars” planned, include a call for less heating and less lighting, an encouragement to telework, a bonus of 100 euros for new carpoolers, the cut off of hot water in the administrations or further reduction of temperature in municipal swimming pools. A decree has already been published in the Official Journal to generalize the extinction of store lights and illuminated advertisements between 1 and 6 am. Objective: to reduce France’s energy consumption by 10% in two years, and in the meantime, to ensure that the country goes through the winter without gas or electricity cuts.
But beyond these measures, the executive still hesitates on its political line in terms of ecology. After Bruno Le Maire’s turtleneck dress advice or Emmanuel Macron’s little sentence on the “end of abundance“, the executive is therefore playing its credibility. With a particularly concerning objective for all French people: to reduce the country’s energy consumption by 10%. compared to 2019, in a context of great tension due to the consequences of the war in Ukraine.
And for this, the government is counting on the exemplary nature of the State and companies, by choosing the incentive to avoid the trial of infantilization. “War on light, war on heating, we’re in down jackets at the ministry, not sure that the planet will be better with that“, laments an adviser.
The summer marked by fires and soaring energy prices served as a trigger, according to the executive: “We are asked to make an effort, but at the Football World Cup, the stadiums will be air-conditioned, that’s nonsense“, enrages a support of Emmanuel Macron, for whom this sobriety plan is only a “hideout“between protection of purchasing power and ecological transition. So many very flammable subjects and therefore likely to stir up the anger of the French.