From now on, an activist who breaks into a central will risk at least two years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros, the National Assembly voted on Thursday evening.
The National Assembly voted on Thursday evening to toughen the penalties for intrusions into power plants, to the chagrin of the left, which fears a brake on the actions of anti-nuclear activists or whistleblowers.
The deputies validated this article of the nuclear revival bill, which provides that the penalty for intrusion will be increased from one to two years in prison and from 15,000 to 30,000 euros in fines, the penalties being higher in the event of threat of a weapon, action in an organized gang…
“We have the right to be opposed to nuclear power but this must be done within the framework of the law”, defended the rapporteur Maud Bregeon (Renaissance).
“Criminalization of environmental action”
The Minister for Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher has curried a “kind of romanticism” around these militant actions, “completely off the mark”.
For its part, the left denounced a “criminalization of environmental action” and a new scale of “totally disproportionate” penalties to punish, for example, the simple deployment of a banner on a site. Amendments from EELV, PS, PCF, LFI and also from the former Minister for Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili (Renaissance), to delete the article, were rejected.
It had been added by the Senate during the first reading of the bill in January, but the deputies revised certain penalties downwards, and struck out in session the possibility of dissolution of a legal person.
A “shut up” launched in the hemicycle?
The tension rose a notch in the hemicycle when Emmanuel Blairy (RN) drew a parallel between the “internal threat” of militants and the “external threat” of “terrorist movements” on the power stations.
Tempers flared, and Laurent Jacobelli (RN) claimed that an elected LFI had shouted “shut up” at a member of his group. The Insoumis deputy Matthias Tavel was called to order by the session president Caroline Fiat (LFI).
The deputies completed in the evening the examination of the whole of the bill, which will be submitted Tuesday to a solemn vote of the Assembly. It aims to simplify the construction of six new EPR reactors in France by 2035.
The surprise came on Wednesday from the rejection of the controversial nuclear safety reform, some voices of the majority having joined the left to oppose the “dismantling” of the Institute dedicated to safety (IRSN). Agnès Pannier-Runacher indicated that she would not ask for a new deliberation of the Assembly on this point.
The minister said she had “proposed to the Senate” a “second reading” of the entire bill.
