François Ruffin: Criticism of the use of farmland to build data centers for American digital groups
Statement made by François Ruffin on September 9, 2026. Topic: Siting and Land. The observatory also publishes quotes from 9 other public figures on this topic.
While the country has been debating food sovereignty for years, it is suddenly no longer an issue when it comes to sacrificing farmland to build the data centers of the American digital giants.
Original quote (French)
Alors que le pays débat de souveraineté alimentaire depuis des années, il n’en est soudain plus question lorsqu’il s’agit de sacrifier des terres agricoles pour construire les datacenters des géants américains du numérique.Source: nouspresident.fr · archived copy
Other candidates on this topic
- Bruno Le Maire: Ten-year programming laws covering data centers, supercomputers and semiconductors
- Bruno Retailleau: Raising sovereign computing capacity to around 1 GW by 2030, then toward 4 GW in 2035-2038
- Delphine Batho: Subjecting the proliferation of data centers to collective debate
- Dominique de Villepin: Require priority siting of data centers on brownfield sites
- Gabriel Attal: Raising Europe's share of global computing power from 3% to 20%
- Jean-Luc Mélenchon: Decree a moratorium on the installation of non-sovereign data centers, without public participation
- Marine Tondelier: Bringing data centers back within the scope of the Commission nationale du débat public
- Nicolas Dupont-Aignan: Having mega data-processing and hosting centers that produce heat
- Xavier Bertrand: States that France can impose its conditions on data centers located on its soil
More from François Ruffin · Compare candidates: Data centers and energy · French page (report an error)