A party that goes badly.
Environmental activists, notably from the NGO Greenpeace, protested this Tuesday late afternoon in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles (Yvelines) against a party that the French hydrocarbon giant TotalEnergies was to hold in the evening for its centenary .
Before the arrival of the first guests for this evening, a handful of activists entered the castle gardens with the last tourists, unfurling a banner reading “Let's put an end to the reign of oil and gas!”
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The police quickly intervened to get the demonstrators to leave.
Outside the castle, on the Place d'Armes, activists from the Friends of the Earth and Alternatiba associations also met.
🚨ACTION IN PROGRESS
Today, @TotalEnergies is celebrating its 100th anniversary at the Château de Versailles.
So, with @amisdelaterre and @greenpeacefr, we came to disrupt the party: there is no question of letting this climate criminal celebrate without incident! #100ansdetrop pic.twitter.com/iGisNRs6NG
— Alternatiba Paris (@alternatiba75) March 26, 2024
According to a security source, “500 guests are expected” Tuesday evening in the Galerie des Batailles, the largest room in the castle for this party organized by TotalEnergies.
When contacted, the group's management did not wish to confirm or deny the event, indicating that it did not communicate "on the private evenings of the company which is a private enterprise".
The Palace of Versailles has also neither confirmed nor denied that this evening will take place.
The Minister for Industry and Energy Roland Lescure and the general director of the energy group Engie were notably invited to the event, but will not be present, their press services indicated in recent days.
Record profit in 2023
Greenpeace also accuses TotalEnergies, which reaped a record profit in 2023, of refusing “to change its model and continue to drill for ever more fossils to maximize its profits”.
The group develops renewable energies but is widely criticized by climate activists in the street and in court for continuing its investments in fossil fuels (gas and oil) despite the climate crisis.
TotalEnergies plans to devote a third of its investments to low-carbon energies in the next five years, but remains associated with oil and soon even more with gas, its priority, which it sees as a “transitional energy” to help economies emerging companies to move away from coal.
In 2030, gas should represent 50% of its sales, compared to 30% for oil and 20% for low-carbon molecules and electricity, part of which will come from green energies (wind and solar), but also from gas power plants.
“At the time of taking stock, the history of TotalEnergies remains marked by a series of scandals,” Greenpeace also recalled in a press release, citing in particular the sinking of the tanker Erika in 1999 or the explosion of the AZF factory in 2001 .
Also read: TotalEnergies: record profits, taxes in France, pump prices... interview with CEO Patrick Pouyanné
An industrial flagship with thunderous success, TotalEnergies has remained discreet about the preparations for the celebration of its centenary organized in two stages.
After this evening in the palace of Louis XIV, the group will bring together its employees at the Porte de Versailles in Paris on Thursday.
The very day of the anniversary of the birth of the old French Oil Company, March 28, 1924 under the leadership of Raymond Poincaré.