Energy companies in France have told the public that they must “immediately” reduce their energy usage as a result of Europe’s sanction war with Russia.
As a result of a sanctions war between Russia and Europe, the French public must now “immediately” cut back on the amount of energy they use, the heads of three major energy providers in the country have now said.
The demand comes shortly after Moscow dramatically reduced the amount of gas it is supplying to some European countries, while completely cutting off others seemingly in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Russia by Western powers.
According to a joint statement penned by the three energy tsars published by Le Journal De Dimanche, the extremely precarious energy situation now means that the French public must “immediately” cut back on their energy usage, or risk leaving the country in a vulnerable situation.
In particular, Engie Managing Director Catherine MacGregor, EDF Chief Executive Jean-Bernard Lévy and TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné outlined rising prices as a result of the crisis as something that threatens the “social and political cohesion” of France.
“Acting this summer will allow us to be better prepared to tackle next winter and in particular to preserve our gas reserves,” the statement penned by the three reads.
“We therefore call for awareness and collective and individual action so that each of us – each consumer, each company – changes their behaviour and immediately limits their consumption of energy, electricity, gas and petroleum products,” they continued.
“The effort must be immediate, collective and massive,” they went on to add. “Every gesture counts.”
The statement from the three French energy company heads comes as neighbouring Germany comes ever closer to economic cataclysm thanks to its overreliance on Russian energy exports that have now almost totally dried up.
In part a result of the country’s climate crazy agenda the state’s addiction to Russian gas, in particular, has left authorities in the country struggling to figure out how they could possibly keep the power on come the winter.
Having already appealed to the public to conserve energy, the country’s climate and economic minister, Robert Habeck, is now saying that he may be forced to shut down industry in order to keep the German grid afloat.
“Companies would have to stop production, lay off their workers, supply chains would collapse, people would go into debt to pay their heating bills, that people would become poorer,” the Green party official said regarding the plan.
Meanwhile, Italy has already begun rationing the use of heating and air conditioning within its public sector, mandating the likes of schools and public offices to never set their thermostats under 25 degrees celsius (77°F) in the summer and over 19 degrees (66°F) in the winter.
“Do we want to have peace [in Ukraine] or do we want to have the air conditioning on?” the country’s europhile Prime Minister Mario Draghi previously asked the public, despite the fact he has so far not been willing to hear the word “no” for an answer.
However, whether he listens to them or not, it seems Italians, in particular, may be turning against their state’s support for the Ukraine war, with the left-wing populist 5 Star Movement — a party that is currently in government — collapsing into infighting over the issue, to the point that it now threatens the future existence of the party.
This has resulted in an exodus from the party that has seemingly been led by the country’s sitting Foreign Affairs minister, Luigi Di Maio, who lambasted his old party as being “immature” over its failure to give proper support to his government’s support for Ukraine.
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