How ‘France First’ doomed a nuclear CEO

By Nicolas Camut, Alexandre Léchenet, Cory Bennett | 03/27/2025 06:28 AM EDT

For French President Emmanuel Macron, it wasn’t enough that Luc Rémont turned around France’s state-owned nuclear firm. He wanted a CEO who put French industry first and built local reactors faster.

France's President Emmanuel Macron greets Luc Rémont, CEO of Électricité de France, during a high tea reception at the Presidential Palace in New Delhi.

French President Emmanuel Macron greets EDF CEO Luc Rémont in New Delhi in January 2024. Pool photo

This article is also available in French.

PARIS — If you run France’s nuclear reactors, you damn well better put France first.

If not, well, there’s always the guillotine.

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The knife blade fell for just that reason last Friday on Luc Rémont, CEO of France’s mammoth state-run nuclear firm, Électricité de France — the company primarily responsible for powering a country that gets 70 percent of its electricity from atomic energy.

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