Saintes, 11 March 2010
To Mme Ségolène Royal 
Chair of the Regional Council
of Poitou-Charentes
Subject: Energy and Nuclear Weapons
Attached: Letter to President Sarkozy
Dear Madame Royal,
Like many of our compatriots, I find in my letterbox this morning the policy declarations of the candidates in the current regional elections. The declaration of the list that you head is called "Advancing Energy" and states that "Green energy is our Future".
The registered association that I chair, which is independent of all parties, churches or similar bodies, has the single objective of furthering the cause that we advocate, a cause of general and (let’s face it) universal interest: the denuclearisation of the planet.
We mean by that, primarily, the abolition of nuclear weapons (parallel to the elimination of other weapons of mass destruction, be they chemical, biological, climatic, seismic or alimentary...). But the phasing-out of the nuclear era and its immense dangers implies also that we abandon so-called "civilian" nuclear technology: that we close as soon as possible our nuclear reactors, by means of energy savings and renewable energy sources - knowing that globally nuclear energy represents barely 3% of overall energy consumption. That concern leads me to put to you two questions.
The first question concerns the "Green Growth" that you propose to foster in Poitou-Charentes by means of really significant measures on top of those you have already taken. Among others, you mention "Ecological mutation contracts" with industries to lead towards "zero industrial waste", and to reduce pollution and water consumption." My question is:
If reelected as head of this part of western France, do you intend to draw up an "Ecological Mutation Contract" with EDF (Electiricté de France) concerning its nuclear power plant at Civaux ?
Further to that, might you be intending to ask your counterpart in the Aquitaine region to do the same with the plant at Le Blayais near Bordeaux, which has already threatened us with a French-style Chernobyl when flooding during the storm of 27 December 1999 brought it close to a "major accident"?
My second question is not a regional one, but you yourself went beyond Poitou-Charente when you stood for the Presidency of France in 2007 - as I did myself in 2002, supported, it is true, by only a dozen independent mayors in our region, and with the sole aim of bringing the nuclear question into the elctoral debate from which it had been scandalously excluded. Here is the specific question:
Do you wish France to propose to all nations that she renounce her nuclear strike-force and dismantle its component parts, in the context of nuclear, biological and chemical disarmament - comprehensive, universal and verified - and with a genuine sytem of international security?
I hardly doubt what you will answer, since in 2003 you signed our World Appeal to rid the planet of all weapons of mass destruction. But in the context of "the Very Last Atom" campaign launched on 13 Feb. 2010 by two French NGOs including ACDN, I am putting the same question today to President Sarkozy, asking him to make it the subject of a referendum. We would like to know whether, if you were in his position, you would agree to organise such a referendum and whether now you are willing to ask him to organise one.
As I look forward to your reply, which we will not fail to make public, I am available for any interview you might seek fit to grant me.
Yours respectfully,
Jean-Marie Matagne
Action des Citoyens pour le
Désarmement Nucléaire (ACDN) 31, Rue du Cormier - 17100 - SAINTES contact@acdn.net http://www.acdn.net
Ségolène Royal’s reply
Poitiers, 18 March 2010,
to
Action des Citoyens pour le Désarmement Nucléaire (ACDN) Monsieur Jean-Marie Matagne, President
Monsieur le Président,
I received your letter and beg you to excuse the tardiness of this reply on the grounds of the abundant correspondence that I receive.
You ask about the denuclearization of the planet, a vision that I share. In 2007 during France’s Presidential Campaign, I gave prominence to the idea of a European defense dynamic while also seeking for lines of research that could result in alternative solutions to nuclear technology. Since then, I have several times regretted that EDF [Electricité de France] has not devoted a percentage of its annual budget to such solutions.
On the regional level, I have set the objective in my plans of trebling by 2020 the production of renewable energy, thus building on what we have already done since 2004. In this way we will be eventually able to replace nuclear power generation with new forms.
For you and all our citizens I want a region that is profoundly human and is working to give everyone new chances of living successfully and raising children well. You can count on me to continue my commitment to this, full-time, with passion.
Yours sincerely,
Ségolène Royal
- Letter of Ségolène Royal to Jean-Marie Matagne, 18 March 2010