Comment: Macron wrong to use EDF for French re-election votes

Don’t you just love Macron’s vote winner for the elections in April?

While British electricity consumers are facing huge bills this winter, French counterparts are being aided by the government.

To cushion the rise in prices, it has authorised EDF to sell an additional 20TWh of nuclear-generated energy at the regulated price of 46.2 per MWh (well below market prices of around 200MWh to its competitors), while limiting the rise in households and small businesses to just 4%.

Read more: Energy, fuel, transport: France’s ‘resilience’ financial aid plan

The absurdity of the situation is that EDF is having to buy the extra 20TWh at spot prices. The overall lost revenue to the company is expected to be around €7billion this year. Staff at EDF went on strike over this in January.

Read more: French EDF workers strike over government efforts to keep prices down

Read more: EDF to sell more cheap electricity to competitors to keep prices low

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has indicated it is normal that a French state organisation aids the public, but he is wrong.

EDF has been a public limited company since 2004, although the government own 83% of the shares.

No surprise that, after this announcement, shares plunged 40% and have stayed at that level.

John GILMORE, Chantilly

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