The main reason for his resignation: he doesn’t believe the French Government is doing enough regarding climate change and other environmental challenges.
There was a Government meeting yesterday evening (27 Aug) on the topic of hunting. The main lobbyist representing the sector of hunting was present during the meeting and that was too much for Minister Hulot. President Macron is in favour of hunting and wants to make it a popular sport while Hulot is not in favour of hunting.
Assessment of Hulot’s Policies
He became Minister of Ecological Transition on May 17, 2017 and here are his successes and failures:
- Nuclear energy
75 % of energy in France is produced by nuclear energy and Hulot promised to decrease it to 50 % by 2025 and to shut down several nuclear reactors. This didn’t go through because the French nuclear sector and lobby are too powerful.
- Glyphosate
Herbicide glyphosate was made illegal by law and a transition period was agreed. The initial period was 10 years and he tried to reduce it to 3 years. When the law was voted, nothing was mentioned regarding his 3 year request.
- Notre-Dames-des-Landes Airport
An airport should have been built in a green area and Minister Hulot managed to stop it. His only victory.
His political Ambitions
He’s very popular in France because he was a journalist and TV presenter before he entered into politics. He presented an ecological documentary called Ushuaïa.
Nicolas Hulot had been “politically flirting” with several French presidents: Chirac, Sarkozy and Hollande but he never accepted a minister role.
He tried to become the presidential candidate of the french ecological party but didn’t succeed.
Earlier this year, Nicolas Hulot has been accused of sexually assaulting the grand daughter of ex French President Mitterand in the 1990s.
Video of his live resignation that happened during a radio show.
CLOSING REMARKS
- Nicolat Hulot had no other options than to resign if he wants to remain consistent with his ecological ideals.
- The French Government voted on the plastic policy a few days ago: Macron took the pledge to recycle 100% of plastic waste by 2025 but remember that this is technically not possible as France is one of the worse recycler in Europe and the next presidential elections will be in 2022.
- Macron used to be a Rothschild banker and was responsible for the acquisition of a Pfizer baby food division by Nestle. A deal that made him a millionaire.
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