The environmentalists will soon have a new national secretary. Europe Ecology – The Greens (EELV) organizes its decentralized congress this Saturday, November 26, then its Federal Council on December 10. Six motions, of varying importance, are in process. They have one thing in common: they are all worn by women.
A significant symbol for a party whose former leader, Julien Bayou, was forced to resign following allegations of psychological violence by his ex-girlfriend.
To succeed him, Marine Tondelier, candidate for the outgoing leadership and city councilor in Hénin-Beaumont, is a strong favourite. In particular, she will have to deal with two strangers: Lille chose Mélissa Camara, close to Sandrine Rousseau, and the lawyer Sophie Bussière, supported in particular by Yannick Jadot. All the candidates agree on one point: the necessary “refounding” of the party. A promise that returns like a boomerang in the different green elections.
“false match”
This year, the congress is taking place in the context of a presidential election where environmentalists obtained a result well below their expectations. Yannick Jadot failed to exceed 4.63%. An unthinkable scenario for his political family after the European elections in which he achieved the best score on the left and after municipal elections that resulted in several victories in large cities such as Lyon, Bordeaux or Strasbourg.
For environmentalists, therefore, it is time for the “presidential review” without different political lines appearing, explains MEP David Cormand. The chosen one rather raises differences in tone to up the ante of this congress. “Do we want a story like that of Yannick Jadot or like that of Sandrine Rousseau?” He asks himself in reference to the duel of the last environmental primaries. The former national secretary of the Greens and supporter of Marine Tondelier, sees it as a “false party”.
Between, on the one hand, an “ecology that tries to reassure at all costs but gives the impression of not always being sure of itself”; and on the other, a “complainant ecology” for which “the important thing is to put issues on the table, fragment and talk to people who are already aware.”
One way to introduce Marine Tondelier’s motion, The continuationas the only alternative. David Cormand evokes on this subject an “ecology that assumes itself in silence” and whose vocation is “to become the majority”.
“We have lost a form of link with the social movement”
Even so, the Jadot-Rousseau duel continues to manifest itself. At the end of October, the two EELV personalities were present at the demonstration against the Sainte-Soline mega-basins in Deux-Sèvres. The first, booed during his speech and arrived in a car later labeled with the word “Crevure”, denounced in a tweet “the black blocks that vandalized [le] vehicle”. And to continue: “[ils] The climate and social mobilizations have been rotting for years, causing the flight of citizens and families with their violence. Legitimizing their actions will kill the political ecology!”
Another Sandrine Rousseau story. Questioned by BFMTV the day after this demonstration about this overflow, the deputy for Paris said that she was in favor of “non-violent disobedience”. Without defending the MEP. “Yannick Jadot must listen that we need to find the ecology of combat”, thus launched the chosen one. Jadot’s response on The world:
“This is the first time that an environmental leader has supported the black blocs against another environmentalist.”
Blank, the position that EELV should occupy in relation to social movements, particularly those related to climate. This even when civil disobedience actions have multiplied in recent weeks with, for example, activists attacking works of art to shock and alert about the climate emergency.
“We have lost a form of link with the social movement. You must question us. We must also be a militant party in the demonstrations, we must theorize this politically, make it the compass of our movement”, estimates Raphaëlle Rémy-Leleu, municipal councilor of Paris and committed by the motion presented by Melissa Camara.
“Do you know Yannick Jadot’s resume?”
Opposite, the jadotistas defend a more nuanced position. “We think that we have to be in the movements – Yannick Jadot was also in Sainte-Soline – but that we must also propose a unifying ecology, capable of bringing together the majorities in the ecological project”, explains Eva Sas, deputy for Paris. .
Sandra Regol, who supports Sophie Bussière, explains that this “tension between pragmatism and radicalism” is “the peculiarity” of ecologists. She recently shared a column by Alexis Vrignon in The world. The historian declares in particular that “there have always been debates in the EELV about the position against the most radical actions.”
“The debate between radicalism and moderation is a healthy one. He is the one who encouraged the Socialist Party when he was still the engine of the left ”, abounds Benjamin Lucas, a deputy within the environmental group without being a member of the EELV.
“What matters in the end is the dose. The left has two legs, they must not oppose each other.”
However, the supporters of the motion embodied by Sophie Bussière underline its part of radicalism. “Do you know Yannick Jadot’s resume?” asks Sandra Regol. “He became known at Green Peace because he was on his little raft to go on the Rainbow Warrior. He was carrying out civil disobedience actions to shake up France”. A refrain that his supporters regularly repeat to defend its champion, sometimes accused of not being radical enough.
Would the difference only be in the tone of the speech and the method rather than in the substance? No, according to Raphaëlle Rémy-Leleu. “Of course there is an issue of political line”, thunders the municipal councilor of Paris. And to cite in particular the demonstration in support of the police in front of the National Assembly where Yannick Jadot had gone to the displeasure of the party.
But there are also debates on “intersectionality” -an approach to designate the situation of a person who simultaneously suffers several forms of discrimination- or “ecofeminism”, a trend that links feminism and ecology.
What future for Nupes?
In addition to this question of “tone” or “political line” according to the different elected officials, the EELV congress will allow the position of environmentalists in relation to the Nupes to be outlined. The movement The EARTH, our struggles by Mélissa Camara is the only one that expands on the subject. This text underlines “the fiasco of the presidential autonomy strategy” and the need to “not be limited to a parliamentary coalition.”
“The Nupes should not be ephemeral, it is a hope for the possibility of union”, says Raphaëlle Rémy-Leleu.
For her, the left-wing coalition “can be a very important tool for people to return to the political space and fight against the extreme right.”
Marine Tondelier and Sophie Bussière play different music. The absence of the premiere at LFI’s march against high cost on October 16 did not go unnoticed.
In an interview in World on November 4, the opposition councilor for Hénin-Beaumont evokes a “relative success” as regards the union of the left. For her, ecology must be “the engine of the next elections.” In this sense, Marine Tondelier and her relatives have shown her reluctance regarding a common left-wing list in the 2024 European elections, desired by the rebels.
In coherence with the support of Yannick Jadot, the text of the motion “ecological spring” led by Sophie Bussière, complies with the minimum of Nupes. Certainly, this is “a parliamentary space whose work must be valued. But we will also have to go beyond this framework, especially since each electoral period is governed by specific dynamics ”, she writes.
Even if the positions of Marine Tondelier and Sophie Bussière are close to Nupes, Eva Sas criticizes the outgoing direction in order to better distinguish herself from it. For her, it adopted “a strategy that was adapted to the circumstances” against the left formations.
“Between autonomy and unity, a clearer line must be defined that is not in vacillation or agony,” he says. Congress will decide.
Source: BFM TV
