Marine Le Pen wants French nuclear plants to start mining Bitcoin

The 2027 presidential election in France is shaping up to become incredibly exciting (and highly important for the future of Europe). It’s still unclear who President Emmanuel Macron will nominate as his potential successor, but it’s already certain that Marine Le Pen will likely be voted into the second round for the third time (at least if recent polls are to be believed) for her Rassemblement National party.

Nuclear power plant

Le Pen has clearly kicked off her election campaign very early with some eye watering proposals. One of them is to use France’s surplus energy from its nuclear power plants to mine for Bitcoin. This is certainly a different approach from creating a strategic Bitcoin reserve (as the United States under Trump briefly planned), but it would be a real game-changer if the plan were to materialize.

Note that this is currently a political proposal aimed at garnering positive press coverage (much like Christian Lindner’s German liberals did in the weeks leading up to the German election earlier this year), and it is highly unclear whether this will still be the proposal of her political party, the so-called Rassemblement National, in 2027.

In the past, Le Pen was very critical of Bitcoin and attempted to ban it from French territory. Now that the French youth are increasingly investing in digital currencies, her party has changed its tack.