Despite opposition from Macron and his allies, the left and the nationalist-right passed a law together, banning the french government from privatizing the national energy company

6 comments

  1. It would be great if this law was passed but it is not yet the case

    It’s a proposal adopted by the Assembly, the Senate still has a say

    Traduction of the last sentence of the article:
    >The parliamentary shuttle must continue with the Senate, and the left hopes for an early vote

  2. True, but it should be noted that the current governement is already nationalizing this national energy company.

    The title makes it sounds like the government whishes to privitize it and that this law goes against it.

  3. **Context**

    For decades, the electricity production was run by Electricité de France (EDF).

    EDF was public utility run by the government. It was created in 1945, by the National Council of Resistance.

    The National Council of Resistance is a group of activists who fought against nazism occupation in World War II and killed German Nazi officiers. Together, they prepared a secret program to run France after liberation. Their program included healthcare for all, a welfare system for the unemployed, strong labor unions rights, and public utilities to help the people.

    At the end of the war, The National Council of Resistance program was applied because the french elite was completely discredited for actively collaborating with the Nazis.

    For decades, the model of EDF worked.

    EDF hired thousands of nuclear engineers and built all nuclear power plants in the country. It powered tens of millions of households and millions of businesses. It’s goal was to provide stable and affordable electricity to all.

    The prices were transparent. The company management was accountable to parliament. They invested over the long term. People were proud to work for EDF because they felt they were working to make their country strong.

    The privatization of EDF happened because the government said capitalism competition between different private corporations would deliver better results.

    So, EDF was privatized and introduced on the stock market. The privatization process was supported by many investment bankers and was very lucrative for those who prepared the IPO (Rothschild Bank, BNP Paribas).

    The only difference is EDF management salaries were multiplied by 4. And the new management only cared about the next quarter.

    However, after privatization, people were happy to stay with EDF, which was experienced and stable. EDF could sell electricity at the cheapest rate because it owned nuclear reactors (it built them!).

    So the government tried to pressure people *to leave EDF*;

    A famous politician named Francois Fillon introduced a law, (loi Nome du 7 décembre 2010) whiched forced EDF to sell electricity *at below market rates* to competing energy start-ups.

    *”If there is no capitalist competition, we will create capitalist competition”* he said.

    As a result, EDF has been bleeding money for a decade now. Executives only cared about the next quarter to quarter. It has fired many experienced engineers, underinvested in nuclear reactors, and France is now facing a major electricity crisis.

    The Macron government decided to nationalize EDF in emergency.

    The goal is for the Government to fix this mess and encourage EDF to invest in the long term. But the government may consider privatizing again once the situation gets better.

    Yesterday, the parliament

    * Banned the government from doing any privatization of EDF again without parliamentary authorization.

    * Legally require EDF to offer affordable electricity to small business owners first and huge businessses second.

    The vote was an alliance between the left and the nationalist right. Macron supporters in parliament are quiet angry that they have lost:

    https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2023/05/05/edf-l-assemblee-adopte-une-proposition-de-loi-contre-le-demantelement-de-l-entreprise_6172137_3234.html

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