Contested nuclear discourses during the 2022 French presidential campaign

Abstract

ABSTRACT The debate on nuclear energy in France offers insights into how energy, the environment, the economy, and society intersect. These insights are crucial to understand the future of sustainable energy. In this paper, the French nuclear debate as it emerged on Twitter during the Presidential campaign of 2021–2022 is analysed through a two-step discursive approach. Discourse Network Analysis is used to create a snapshot of the debate in terms of coalitions of actors and discourses; then, an interpretive approach is employed to analyse the meanings attached to the sets of policy positions obtained through DNA. The article shows who are the main actors and the most common arguments. Furthermore, it shows that, in France, pursuing the use of civil nuclear is framed as a pragmatic choice in the face of climate change and insecure energy supplies; in populist terms as a form of energy that could turn back the clock of globalisation; and as an impasse that prevents France from embracing a truly sustainable energy agenda. By unveiling this set of discourses, the article challenges the idea of ‘French nuclear exceptionalism’ often found in the literature and the media and contributes to the larger literature on nuclear discourses.