As a teenager, Barbara Pompili dreamed of going into space and seeing "the earth from above". At 45 years old, the deputy LREM of the Somme, who chaired the commission for sustainable development at the National Assembly did not take down the moon, but here she is nonetheless propelled number 2 of the government: Minister of the Ecological and Solidarity Transition . It is therefore to this former member of EELV, who had joined the En Marche movement in 2017, that Emmanuel Macron entrusted the mission to green the end of his five-year term by setting to music the 146 proposals of the Citizens' Convention for the weather.
That's good. Ecology, Barbara Pompili knows well, just as she is a perfect insider of the cogs of a ministry and parliament. Before joining the macronie, Barbara Pompili had done her classes under François Hollande as Secretary of State for Biodiversity alongside Ségolène Royal. A bad memory for this native of Pas-de-Calais who had had a hard time imposing herself in the shade of the "boss".
A minister under guardianship?
With a voluntary but discreet temperament, it was in 2000 that Barbara Pompili took her first steps in ecology. Graduated from Sciences-po Lille in 1997, this little girl of miners who comes from Amiens, like Emmanuel Macron, then joined the Greens. Parliamentary assistance, press secretary, the one who goes through the Greens as the "good friend" works for a long time behind the scenes for Noël Mamère and Yves Cochet, before emancipating himself.
In 2007, she faced voters for the first time. Candidate for the legislative elections in the 13th district of Paris, she collects… 2.29% of the votes. Five years later, in 2012, she was elected environmental deputy for the Somme, supported by the Socialist Party. At 37, this first MP is propelled into the limelight, the first woman to co-lead the first parliamentary group of EELV, alongside François de Rugy.
These two are inseparable, it is worth in tandem the (nasty) nickname of Barbie and Ken. One after his resignation from the Ministry of the Ecological and Inclusive Transition, after "the affair of the cost of meals at the Hôtel de Lassay", François de Rugy, alias "Ken", is full of praise for the new promotion which replaces Elisabeth Borne. " It is a very good choice. She has ecological convictions pegged to the body and political experience ”. But on the side of EELV, we are much more skeptical: "Hopefully it does better than during his time as Secretary of State for Biodiversity", tackle Julien Bayou, his secretary general, wishing "good luck" to the new minister.
VIDEO. Dupond-Moretti, Bachelot, Pompili… here are the new ministers of the Castex government
What room for maneuver will Barbara Pompili have? Will it be able to weigh on issues such as nuclear power, pesticides, CO2 emissions, much more pitfall than the issue of the renovation of thermal colanders which is part of its roadmap? "The experience and commitment of Barbara Pompili for the environment are beyond doubt, notes Jean-François Julliard, the director of Greenpeace France, but we are unfortunately skeptical about the real influence she may have in the face of a omnipresent president and a majority that systematically unravel any significant progress in favor of the climate. "