The political coalition "Europe Ecologie - Les Verts" (EELV), which is currently organising the "ecologists’ Primary", is committing itself to phasing out nuclear power and also nuclear weapons.

In the terms of a resolution adopted by its Provisional Federal Council on 2 April 2011, "EELV mandates the candidate who will represent it in the 2012 presidential campaign to place nuclear disarmament at the heart of its programme.

"EELV will make France’s participation in the process of abolishing nuclear weapons one of the fundamental points of its legislative and presidential programme, and also one of the commitments required of the candidate representing the Left in the 2nd round of the 2012 presidential election."

EELV’s new Federal Council, appointed at the Congress in La Rochelle, decided on Sunday 5 June with near unanimity (one against, one abstention) to sign and make its own the Appeal "For a Europe without nuclear weapons or power-plants Pour une Europe sans armes ni centrales nucléaires".

Eva Joly, who is a contender in the EELV Primary, had declared on 14 May 2011 that she would be "the candidate for phasing out civil and military nuclearism" - "la candidate de la sortie du nucléaire civil et militaire". (See the video at 3’ 45’’.) On June 1, she sent a letter to the President of the Republic asking him:

"Do you want France to propose to all nations that she renounce her nuclear strike force and dismantle its components, in the framework of nuclear, biological and chemical disarmament that is comprehensive, universal and controlled, and of a genuine system of international security ?"

She invited him to put the question to the French people in a referendum.

Today she proceeded to sign, with the president of ACDN, an opinion piece for the daily Ouest-France entitled "Phasing out nuclear power is not enough" : "Sortir du nucléaire civil ne suffit pas".

ACDN is delighted by the positions adopted by this candidate. Eva Joly is known for her ability to resist state pressures, at a time when, according to a recent Minister of Defense, Mme Alliot-Marie, the nuclear strike-force is "at the heart of the French State", and when in France the military-industrial lobby and the nuclear lobby are enshrined in strong positions.

ACDN calls on every one of the candidates in the ecologists’ Primary to join in this anti-nuclear struggle. The time has come to strip all heads of state of all their arms of mass destruction, all those weapons made for massacring human populations, destroying the planet, and - even before the catastrophe occurs - degrading and squandering the Earth’s resources.

Saintes, 8 June 2011

ACDN