Leaning on the tablet in the TGV bar compartment, his large body slightly slumped on the gray leatherette stool, Yannick Jadot stretches his long legs. His first words are to clear up Emmanuel Macron's intervention the night before on television. “He announced the good news of the reopening of restaurants so that it is not Edouard Philippe who does it. It becomes ridiculous. Three days of press exegesis before he speaks and in the end? Nothing. A President of the Republic who does not even speak of recovery. A space vacuum. "
The world after the crisis, the left gathered under the green banner, the possible postponement of regional plans envisaged by the Elysée - "here we are at the end of the line" - the communitarian drifts "result first of discrimination", Jadot is inexhaustible. With a bit of coquetry, he even comments on the evocation of his name by the presidential entourage, to replace Philippe at Matignon: “It amused me. They spend their time pretending that they have a capacity for attraction. "
For a bit, the man who led the list of European Ecology Greens (EELV) to the latest European ones (13.5%), would almost forget that he is on his way to go to Marseille to support Michèle Rubirola. Completely unknown a few months ago, this green doctor at the head of the Printemps Marseillais (PM), a left-wing coalition, seems to be well on the way to succeed Jean-Claude Gaudin (LR).
Jadot castigates the "business" of the outgoing municipal majority
Arrived on the platform of the Saint-Charles station, face covered with a black mask which he had discreetly left hanging to his ear during the journey, Jadot advances with his stiff gait, his shoulders pitching like those of a sailor resting dismount. From afar, he exchanges great gestures with Michèle Rubirola who is waiting for him at the end of the platform. Despite years spent together with the Greens, they don't know each other very well. In front of the cameras they exchange big smiles and mimic a bow with the elbow.
" In shape? “, Launches the green leader to his host. "Only fifteen days left for the campaign," replied the candidate. "In less than a fortnight you will see the files arriving on your mayor's desk," encourages Jadot. Direction Talus, an urban farm in the 11th arrondissement of Marseille, wedged between the highway, the railways and the Air Bel city.
Under a scorching sun barely refreshed by a weak Mistral, the MEP takes the opportunity to show his support for the Marseille Spring and castigate the "business" and "clientelism" of the outgoing municipal majority on the right caught in a nasty fraud case electoral. "When ethics collapse, in the end it is the buildings that collapse", thunders Jadot with his feet in the compost.
Not on his best turf
Quick start for a lunch with the candidate and local entrepreneurs producing renewable energy. The support visit to Marseille will last less than four hours, watch in hand. Despite the thunderclap of a possible ecological victory in Marseille, Jadot knows that he is not on his best ground: four days earlier his rival Eric Piolle, of the same current more to the left than Rubirola at EELV, is already passed there. The possible future mayor of Marseille embodies the reverse of the strategy, for a moment pushed by Jadot: favorable to a broad union on the left from the first round, it is even "suspended" from EELV which had chosen to present an autonomous list to the first turn before finally merging with the PM on the second.
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Fortunately, there is Jean-Luc Mélenchon to make diversion. The boss of LFI, who only realized late that the right could lose Marseille is holding a catch-up press conference. Jadot prefers to comment on the recent quasi-declaration of candidacy of the deputy of Marseille for the presidential election of 2022: "I see there more a sign of concern compared to Ruffin's competition than of confidence. "With the added bonus of this tackle:" Given the results of the municipal elections, it is easier for him (Mélenchon) to say that he is a candidate now than on June 28. As if the presidential campaign had already started ...