Ah! They would have been well advised to delve into the albums of “Asterix”, the engineers of EDF, before deciding, in December 1974, to set up a nuclear power plant in Plogoff, in Finistère! They would have understood that if the inhabitants of these granite lands don’t look like much when they say no… well, it’s no. No, the 2,300 souls of this lost town did not want 2 kilometers of coastline demolished for them on Cape Sizun to install a gleaming “modern” power station there, creating jobs and providing subsidies. No one asked their opinion, but they gave it anyway. For them, the four reactors mean first “invasion”, and then “danger”.
A certain idea of France
Let’s say it right away: we enjoy watching the images of this standoff which opposed, for seven years, the Giscardian technocrats – “cuffed” defenders of the atom, “safe and clean energy” – to a heterogeneous troop mixing hoary sailors with rocky accents and young, long-haired readers of “La Gueule Ouvert”, who have come to lend them a hand. The Plogoffists did everything to the poor overwhelmed prefect: they put up barricades to prevent the official vans, supervised by soldiers, responsible for bringing the public utility survey to the attention of the citizens (a parody of local consultation, but legally OBLIGATORY).
They also broke their piggy banks to buy agricultural land at Cap Sizun and throw EDF into an unfathomable administrative headache. Local mothers even spent their days morally harassing the soldiers dispatched to the scene, making fun of her, giving her derogatory nicknames, singing songs to her (a hilarious moment in the documentary). “It’s not folklore here, it’s serious!” », testifies, amazed, a hippie interviewed at the end of the 1970s. We can only share his admiration for the quiet determination of these heads of mule. Yes, they embodied a certain idea of France. And in the end, as in “Asterix”, they won.
Monday February 6 at 10:45 p.m. on France 3. Documentary by François Reinhardt (2021). 50 min. (Available in replay on france.tv).
