TotalEnergies launches defamation action against French presidential candidate

Green Party MEP had accused the firm of complicity in war crimes due to its stance on Russia’s invasion

French major TotalEnergies will bring “without delay” a defamation suit against French MEP and Green Party presidential candidate Yannick Jadot, the firm’s head of global media relations said on LinkedIn on Wednesday. The firm has finally responded to weeks of criticism for its reluctance to follow the lead of peers such as BP, ExxonMobil, Shell and Norway’s Equinor in promising to exit Russian investments. And clearly it is in combative mood. “Words have meaning and what Yannick Jadot says is unacceptable,” Paul Naveau wrote on the social networking platform. “To be ‘complicit in war crimes’ is to provide direct assistance to a state or criminal organisation that has committed the crimes. T