Climate activists, renewable energy players and scientists are concerned about the possible arrival of the National Rally (RN) to power. They denounce an “empty” program and the populist party’s lack of skills in the fight against global warming.
Sunday June 9, after the announcement of the dissolution of the National Assembly by Emmanuel Macron, a coordination WhatsApp loop bringing together dozens of activists from different organizations, such as Friends of the Earth, #NousToutes and others collectives, suddenly changed its name: “No RN in Europeans” became “No RN in Matignon”… A sign that the danger had just changed in nature.
The France Nature Environnement association wishes to “prevent France from falling into the camp of climate skeptics and environmental crisis deniers”. Because the National Rally wants to “unravel environmental progress”, warns the NGO Greenpeace. “The far right is a serious danger for the environment and the climate,” write Friends of the Earth on the social network X.
What alarms climate specialists are the measures put forward by the RN. During the 2022 presidential campaign, Marine Le Pen promised around twenty new nuclear reactors, ten of which to be delivered by 2031, an unrealistic bet, according to the manufacturers themselves. She also promoted a moratorium on wind power, thus coming up against all energy transition scenarios, which, nuclear or not, underline the need for renewable energies if France wants to move away from fossil fuels and meet its climate commitments. The then copy was thus judged “very far from, even contrary” to France’s climate objectives, according to an analysis carried out by franceinfo at the time.