For a discreet return to the Assembly, it was a failure. From the first round of the legislative elections, Dominique Voynet’s good score in Doubs had already created knee-jerk reactions on social networks. Since the second round, which confirmed her election as a deputy, criticism has been pouring in. “She should be tried for treason,” some exclaim. “We take the gravediggers of nuclear power and start again,” others pour out. Some try to put things into perspective: “It was that or the RN.” Nevertheless, Dominique Voynet’s return brings back one of the most painful pages in the history of French nuclear power: the closure of Superphénix.
“Neither forgotten nor forgiven,” sum up many Internet users, some of whom claim to be blocked on X by the former minister. The story is well-known: commissioned in 1985, the Superphénix reactor was supposed to provide a considerable advance to France by allowing it to produce energy while consuming part of its nuclear waste. Alas, in 1997, at the very moment when it was beginning to function in a completely satisfactory manner, Superphénix was definitively shut down by Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, in application of an agreement reached with the Greens a few months earlier.
“When we decided to make an agreement with the PS, we discussed France’s energy choices and we agreed on directions, which included the shutdown of Superphénix,” Dominique Voynet would later declare. And even if other personalities – such as Ségolène Royal or Corinne Lepage – also contributed to the weakening of nuclear power, the former leader of the Greens has since retained a reputation as a “wrecker” of the sector. Especially since she remained a fierce opponent of it until the end of her various mandates.
“It’s enough to make you feel sick.”
In a documentary filmed in 2004, which has resurfaced today, the former minister proudly recounts how she deprived French nuclear power of European financial support while bluffing with Matignon: “I returned to Paris very happy that nuclear power was not [puisse] “not be part of the technologies selected under the Clean Development Mechanisms,” she explains on screen. And adds: “I couldn’t brag about it when I got home, I had to look sorry.”
“When we see that she did the opposite of what Jospin, who was her Prime Minister, had asked her to do, and that when she goes to Brussels, instead of defending French nuclear power, she does the opposite and flatters herself about it, there is reason to be disgusted,” underlines an energy expert. “I do not understand how she could return to service,” says Fabien Bouglé, author of Nuclear, the hidden truths (Editions du Rocher, 2021).
Of course, as a simple MP, the Doubs representative will not decide on French nuclear policy on her own. At the end of the legislative elections, most of the members of the presidential camp invested in energy issues were also reappointed. It will also be necessary to deal with the new ones and wait for the distribution of MPs in the thematic committees to really see who will take up the subject.
“In the current political configuration, technical issues – such as nuclear power – can still find a small space and move forward in the Assembly with several groups of very different sensibilities,” an expert recently confided to L’Express. The risk is that caricatured positions take precedence over substantive debates. “Unfortunately, for a long time in France, energy choices have come up against short-term considerations and political politicking. This “TikTok” effect prevents us from projecting ourselves 50 or 100 years into the future as we should,” laments Fabien Bouglé. However, whether it is the number of EPRs or the future supply of uranium, the country will have to make decisions quickly.