When will Macron finally sober up on the country’s energy crisis?
Freddie Ponton
21st Century Wire
The French National Assembly has provided 2.3 million Euros in additional money for 2022 in order to deal in particular with the “effects of inflation” on the energy expenditure of their institution, along with automatic increases in the remuneration for civil servants, reported the French press this week.
Yes, you heard that right: French parliamentarians are cold, and had to get a budget’s extension to warm their seats – whilst the rest of France is freezing! Indeed, the monarchy is alive and well…
A cozy 2.3 million Euros
The Assembly’s draft budget amounted to €608.7 million, but bureaucrats had to act to secure an extension of €2.3 million “in order to take into account the index revaluation measures, the uncertainties linked to the rate of progress of several real estate investments and the effects of inflation on the energy expenditure,” according to the minutes meeting’s report. In other words, they say the need more cash to pay the utility bills.
Long exchanges took place, as ministers argued over the thermostat temperature in certain offices and on the premises of the French Assembly, in principle OK at 19°C, but sometimes less in the event of defective heating (the radiators are old, you see), reported one government source.
We’re told that some deputies have also been happy to wear the scarf in the hemicycle for a few days (not the entire winter of course).
Ironically, President Yaël Braun-Pivet had just launched a working group on “sustainable development” within the institution in early August 2022, responsible for working on Macron’s bold new “energy sobriety measures”, and for a few months on a new “ecological transition plan“.
Aristocratic France will of course see that its elite public servants are warm this winter, but what about the deplorables?
Incroyable : l’Assemblée nationale se vote une rallonge de 2,3 millions d’euros pour « se chauffer » !
Pendant ce temps les gamins sont à 10 degrés à l’école et les malades idem à l’hôpital ! Quel infâme régime ! pic.twitter.com/MFtzrN7whj
— Florian Philippot (@f_philippot) December 8, 2022
As low as 10°C in the classrooms”
France is now faced with soaring energy prices, and municipalities are really struggling to heat schools (see article).
For several weeks, many teachers and parents of students have been complaining about the temperatures in the classrooms.
We’re also seeing an explosion of energy prices for town halls and other public facilities. That means massive shutdowns are coming soon.
A few days ago, scarves and gloves were essential for students at the Bois Bohy Elementary School in Evreux (Eure). Not just on the playground – but even in the classrooms.
“When I arrived with my daughter one morning this week, the teacher warned me that it was 12°C,” said Marie, a mother of a CE2 pupil.
“Parents took temperature readings, we were at 10-12°C top,” assured Audrey Gouffé, vice-president of the local association of parents GIPE. A shocking state of affairs, especially for parents already reeling from all the lost education days due to Covid school shut down during 2021-2022.
Thanks to a viral media report by France Info, public pressure resulted in the temperature in the classrooms being eventually adjusted.
Bohy Elementary School is not the only one, as across France many schools have faced the same situation. In Limeil-Brévannes (Val-de-Marne), it was not until November 28th that all schools were decently heated, and only after several weeks of repeated complaints from parents.
“Children cannot learn in such conditions”, denounced Eric Labastie, president of the FCPE, a parent-teacher association in France.
If the problem of heating arises every year in many dilapidated establishments, the energy crisis really complicates the deal. Several town halls interviewed by France Info are now claiming to have to save to keep to their budget and somehow cope with the explosion of bills.
It is now transparent that Macron’s “energy sobriety” rules have already had their effect on populations across the country, as solutions are not always available – contrary to those lucky enough to work in the Parliament. Lowly town halls do not have access to extravagant extra budgets and for French mayors every penny counts.
Elite politicians are expecting the provincial officials and other public employees to ‘tough it out’ for the remainder of the winter.
Freezing Hospitals
It gets worse: at Vire Hospital in Normandy, the management refuses to turn on the heating. According to reports, officials can barely manage just 15 degrees in a room – with the heating largely cut off ‘for the sake of economy’ in this Norman hospital.
The director of the nursing homes questioned by the local daily paper, confirmed that he indeed had “never given his agreement to turn on the heating.”
“We have received recommendations for energy sobriety from the public services. These are national guidelines,” he added.
An unimaginable 13°C was recorded inside a hospital of Meaux in France, where patients and caregivers remain deprived of heating due to technical failures and dilapidated buildings, to the point where one patient’s family had to file a lawsuit against the facility for child abuse.
Meanwhile, the Sud Santé Sociaux union of the hospital group in Le Havre, reported 13°C in a hospital in Le Havre in November, as the union denounced the fact that such low temperatures pose a grave risk to patients and “did not make it possible to offer decent hospitalisation and working conditions,” reported the union to BFM Normandie.
We found many articles like this exposing the same challenges faced by schools, hospitals and town halls across the country, and its origin is easily identifiable, that is the raft of “energy sobriety” policies enacted by the Macron government which have triggered the current crisis.
Is the European electricity market at the origin of this chaos?
During the presidential campaign, a very complex subject entered the public debate: the functioning of the European electricity market.
Almost all the candidates criticised the price-setting mechanisms of this market, holding it responsible for the ongoing soaring electricity prices.
It turns out that this ‘middle man’ market was born of the 1996 by European directive, which put an end to the regulated tariffs set by the public authorities and introduced the principle of ‘competition’ in the wholesale power and energy supply markets.
In France, where the organization of the electricity system, led by EDF at the time, seemed to be very satisfactory, the new directive was not implemented until four years later. Today, this market mechanism contributes to a truly confusing situation: while France produces its electricity mainly from decarbonized sources (nuclear, hydro, wind and solar), the price of electricity is still influenced by gas prices – which skyrocketed this winter – something Macron’s government has blamed on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In reality, those prices were already surging in 2021 – long before Putin’s foray in Ukraine in late February 2022.
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The surge in electricity prices is directly related to the functioning of this absurd European market of electricity. UK consumers are also getting ripped off with the same system, implemented at that same time around 2000 as it was in France. Indeed, without the newly created speculators’ markets, electricity prices would have followed the normal predictable costs of the electricity system, which have only increased by 4% in 2021, compared to 2020, and less than 5% compared to 2019, before the health crisis (see Anne Debregeas, research engineer in electrical system’s economics at EDF and spokesperson for SUD-Energie calculations here). This increase is mainly due to the surge in gas prices, which is only a very small part of the costs of the electricity system.
One could draw the conclusion then, that without the European ‘middle man’ markets, there may not have been a crisis regarding the country’s electricity bills.
Interestingly, the mainstream press are not talking much about the financiers’ energy trading markets. They’re just doing the same as the President, blaming ‘Putin’s war’ in Ukraine.
There are some solutions available. Spain and Portugal have obtained an exceptional exemption from Brussels to temporarily withdraw from this market. To leave the European electricity market and put an end to the dogma of ‘free competition’, the demands will also need to be drawn up by the representative bodies of EDF employees, who have launched the National Energy Council as a sign of resistance. Such moves could be promising, at least in offering some short term relief to a near impossible situation.
Electrical load shedding measure in France
The government in a desperate attempt to anticipates all possible scenarios” in case of shortage of electricity in France, published a document on November 30, given to the prefects across the country to help them prepare their regions to “targeted and programmed cuts of electricity”.
Translated document (French to English):
eng 611769552-Circulaire-Delestage-Electrique.fr.en.
Welcome to European States of America
The “European States of America” aka the EU, with their German allies, seem to have been occupied for a very long time, carefully orchestrating the deindustrialisation of Europe, and it is extremely disappointing, to say the least, to bear witness of our country being abandoned by its leadership, in favor of a globalist ideal, conceived in Davos, that is yet to show any benefits to the citizen of France. Words of incomprehension are certainly getting traction in the hexagons, and the trust in our institution is once more being eroded.
In France, the last major power cuts were in the last century, and electricity was not as important as it is today for all information and communications networks which power a 21st century civilisation. From now on, with our backs to the wall (thanks to Macron and his unelected globalist cohort) we must take the virtuous path of increasing the number of controllable power plants, i.e. nuclear power plants, as well as hydroelectricity – as a priority to secure the reindustrialisation of the country – powered by an abundant supply of cheap, reliable sovereign energy.
Astonishingly, we recently heard Macron calling for ‘unity and sobriety’, and for the people of France to rally behind him, whilst still pointing the finger of contempt at those who are spreading fear about the forecasted load shedding and power cuts. The level of dystopia in our executive branch has certainly reached new levels… not only does Macron has the audacity in the below interview to condemn those who are ‘spreading fear’ in France, but he also added “we are going to hold firm despite the war“, implying that we are all at war, and that the Russia-Ukraine conflict is the only reason behind the energy crisis in France. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Insulting his peoples’ intelligence seems to have become his favorite pass time, and it is rather disconcerting the speed with which Macron seems to also have forgotten that he himself has been the chief fearmongerer – for two long years constantly announcing France was ‘at war’ with the alleged COVID-19 pandemic, and he had no issue pushing unjustifiable liberticide corona measures, and mandating the deadly shots, whilst insulting millions of unvaccinated French citizens.
It’s safe to says that the mental health of this man is questionable.
Energy crisis: “The scenarios of fear? Not for me,” says Emmanuel Macron (Source: BFMTV Twitter):
The common thread between the COVID-19 and the so-called “pandemic” and this energy crisis, is the way in which fear has once more been injected into the population to satisfy a globalist agenda that is taking a serious toll on the citizenry.
I am doubtful that people in France will take much more of this lunacy.
Well, the good news is our Parliamentarians won’t freeze to death this winter, and will be able to comfortably reflect (between a croissant and a warm coffee) on the fate of the deplorables, the elderly, the children in our schools, and the patients in our hospitals.
Finally, the United States and France also announced the formation of ‘Joint Task Force’ between the United States and the European Union, allegedly to deal with trade disputes around clean energy issues emerging from Biden’s disastrous Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA).
Funny how EU is worried about potential new trade barriers on European electric vehicle producers – when the people are freezing right across the continent. We should be grateful that our elites are fighting climate change, no?
I guess everything is warm and shinny under the sun, especially in our Parliament.
This won’t fly for much longer. Macron’s destitution is looming…
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