Dear subscribers,
Three years ago almost to the day, I wrote a column whose title was: “What do we want to do with EDF?”.
Three years and a reform of the group (Hercules) buried later, the question remains unanswered.
The energy crisis puts it bluntly.
Is EDF a state enterprise?
Can we reconcile its social interest, that of its minority shareholders and that of its majority shareholder (84%) who is also its regulator?
Monday morning, on the antenna of France Info, Bruno Le Maire gave his own answer in these terms, from which, if the logic was pushed to the end, we could conclude that EDF should be renationalized 100%:
Everything basically depends on the conception we have of EDF.
Either we consider that it is a major public energy service which therefore must respond to a question of general interest - the protection of households and businesses when prices are very high.
Either we believe that it is a private company that only makes profit, and in this case, privatize EDF.
But this is not my conception of EDF.
For me, EDF is a major public energy service.
Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, France Info on January 24, 2022
The role-playing game around the EDF table is a great classic of the genre.
EDF is a special animal: it is, let's put it bluntly, a state enterprise with a small part of the capital (15%) listed on the stock exchange.
This requires a lot of contortions, sometimes hypocrisies, so that the State imposes its decisions without…
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