Christian Stoffaës, President Emeritus of the ICREI, points out in an op-ed in Le Monde the slippery slope that French government’s decisions are taking concerning the nuclear industry:
The nuclear option, an emblematic legacy of the old world, has not yet asserted its place in the new world. Beyond words, however, several decisions taken during the summer that was conducive to strategic coups may well seal the fate of France’s nuclear choice. This is far more certain than the closure of a new contingent of power plants.
Confronted with the “green international”, he calls for vigilance to preserve the rent bequeathed by a generation of pioneers:
France did not marry nuclear power by chance. She must not inadvertently divorce from it. The nuclear choice was not imposed on French democracy: it was constantly supported by public opinion and the main political and social forces – except by the new global ecological left, which won everywhere else but lost in France. The era of enthusiastic pioneers […] has given way to the era of the rentier, who is careful with details and competes for the rent.
Christian Stoffaës, « La France ne doit pas divorcer du nucléaire par inadvertance », Le Monde, 22 novembre 2019.
The full text of this article (in French) is available on the Cercle des économistes website.