How to anger Elisabeth Borne or Yaël Braun-Pivet? The recipe is simple. It suffices to tell the Prime Minister or the President of the National Assembly that the government has built an implicit agreement with Les Républicains (LR), the majority’s privileged partner since June. A heresy, howl these followers of overtaking. Macronie cannot have an exclusive ally. These left wing figures can blow. The examination in the Assembly of the bill aimed at accelerating the production of renewable energies (ENR) has a good chance of giving birth to a compromise with the left. A first, with the exception of the introduction of the right to abortion in the Constitution.
Agreement is essential. Elisabeth Borne does not intend to use article 49.3 of the Constitution to have the text adopted, which aims to make up for France’s great delay in ENR. They currently represent only 19.3% of gross final energy consumption, already below the target set for 2020 of 23%. Faced with LR’s reluctance, the majority turns their heads. “The right will not give us gifts and will wish to remind that it is in opposition, anticipates the president of the Commission for Sustainable Development Jean-Marc Zulesi. We must look first and foremost to the left.”
LR on the defensive
The story is less schematic. The text was adopted in November almost unanimously in the Senate, where the right reigns. But an alliance between the left and the centrists has brought down two devices dear to LR, “red lines of the executive”: the establishment of a minimum distance of 40 kilometers from the shore for the installation of wind turbines at sea and the creation of a right of veto for municipal councils for the installation of onshore wind turbines. Instead, the municipalities will be able to define “suitable areas” where priority should be given to implementing renewable energy projects.
The right looks suspiciously at wind turbines. Degradation of landscapes, noise pollution… It relays the grievances of local populations against their proliferation. LR folded in the upper chamber, but resentments are stubborn. The boss of the LR group in the Senate and candidate for the presidency of the party Bruno Retailleau was pinned by his rivals Eric Ciotti and Aurélien Pradié on this defeat.
After the vote, LR deputies and senators, members of the Economic Affairs Committee, exchanged views, with the common idea of modifying the text in the Assembly. The landing of the text in committee did not, however, change the situation: the right of veto did not pass, as did the proposal from the right to increase the minimum distance of 500 meters between homes and facilities. Another device died in combat: the requirement of an assent from the Architect of the Buildings of France for any wind project located less than ten kilometers from a historic monument.
“Complicated for the left to vote against”
These setbacks do not push LR to compromise. A majority of elected officials should vote against the text, despite some abstentions. “The text is not built like a PPE (multi-annual energy program) and does not set any percentage target for renewable energy compared to nuclear, we deplore within the group. The government does not assume in not his desire to build wind turbines.” The right, which accuses Emmanuel Macron of having scuttled the nuclear industry, does not intend to let go of the head of state. “Some of my colleagues will vote against, whatever the changes in the hemicycle”, loose a leading LR deputy on the subject.
The ally is therefore on the left. The executive is banking on environmentalist and socialist voices to win the day. He even let himself be seduced by some lobbyists from environmental NGOs, such as the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO), to better reassure environmentalists. “Politically, it is complicated for the left to vote against when we are playing the game”, assures L’Express the Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher. Nupes is composite. Each group has its concerns. EELV, which hesitates between voting for and abstaining, wants to reconcile the development of wind turbines and respect for biodiversity. No question of sacrificing environmental law on the altar of ENR.
Article 4, deleted in committee, illustrates this tension. The text recognizes an “imperative reason of major public interest” for ENR projects and limits legal recourse against them. An EELV executive summarizes: “This text is the last chance but it does not authorize everything. It is not because France is the European laughing stock of the development of renewable energies that we have to do anything and plant wind turbines everywhere as we did in the past with the electric poles.”
The compliant rebels
The PS is also waiting to see. Admittedly, the Socialists have expressed their “rather benevolent” view of the law. But one point makes them wince: the sharing of value planned by the government, which would allow residents close to a wind turbine to pay less for their energy bill. The left fears an attack on territorial solidarity, when the majority sees in this mechanism a factor of project acceptability.
Communists are the most hostile. In favor of nuclear power and the “EDF monopoly”, they denounce the “liberal market” for renewables. There remains the thorny LFI case. Despite the usual criticisms, the rebellious will find it difficult to add their voices to those of the right. Jean-Luc Mélenchon makes ecology the keystone of L’Avenir en commun, the unsubdued program. “The vote against is difficult to hear even if we were able to do it on the purchasing power law, admits an LFI executive. We will abstain. There, it’s different: we can’t afford to be those who make the switch to help LR and RN vote against the text. “La Nupes, they will have to scratch their heads to find reasons to vote against, frankly”, confirms a Renaissance deputy.
The final vote could only make people happy. The government would exhibit a first agreement with the left. Useful, as the left wing of macronie is frustrated with the partnership with LR. Essential, as the next texts – immigration, pensions, nuclear – promise a new rapprochement with LR. The left, by an abstention or a positive vote, would defend itself from a trial for sectarianism. LR would finally recall his status as an opponent of Emmanuel Macron. The sequence risks making a loser: the consistency of the LR groups in the Assembly and the Senate. Every success has its collateral victims.