There will be four on the starting line. MEP Yannick Jadot, MEP Delphine Batho, Grenoble mayor Éric Piolle, and former EELV spokesperson Sandrine Rousseau will participate in the primary of the “environmentalist pole” in September 2021. Jean-Marc Governatori, centrist candidate of Cape Town 21, did not collect the 28 sponsorships necessary to be among the candidates. The former head of the list (Cap ecology) in PACA during the regional elections had complained about the exclusion of Corinne Lepage's movement following fundamental differences on secularism. Departure which had reduced its sponsorships. Enough to raise questions about the ideological fractures of EELV: realistic or dogmatic political ecology? Which line will win? It should be remembered that the primaries, on the right and on the left, in 2016-2017,had nominated the most radical candidates: François Fillon and Benoît Hamon.
Candidates lacking notoriety
To show their good understanding and their union, the ecological candidates presented themselves side by side Monday, July 12, in front of photographers and journalists, in the brasserie L'Européen in Paris.
"We are the only political family to organize this debate internally and by addressing the country",
argued Julien Bayou, National Secretary of EELV. It is against the backdrop of a presidential address Monday evening that the party presents its primary. But whatever. For his candidates, one goal: there are two months left to campaign before the first round which will be held over four days, from September 16 to 19. Before a second, from September 25 to 28. Until then, most of them, lacking notoriety, will take advantage of the summer to meet the French. According to the latest Ifop-Fiducial poll for Le Figaro and LCI, Yannick Jadot, the most tested candidate in the opinion polls, is estimated at 7% of the votes. For Julien Bayou, who excludes any withdrawal from EELV in favor of a joint candidacy, "
there is no crystallization in public opinion yet, it will take place in March 2022".
Read also: Presidential 2022: these environmentalists who do not want the union on the left
In this battle, everyone plays their part and sharpens their arguments.
Delphine Batho, former Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy between 2012 and 2013, calls on the French to
"give momentum"
to political ecology
"to win the presidential election"
.
And promises
"high-grade"
debates
. A way to challenge the other contenders not to transform the primary into an internal fight. A fear all the more justified that during the last two EELV primaries, the favorites Nicolas Hulot, in 2011, and Cécile Duflot, in 2016, had been eliminated in favor of Eva Joly and Yannick Jadot. The same, former head of the EELV list in the Europeans of 2019, and the most famous candidate of the French, is positioned directly against the President of the Republic: "
We embody hope and we have the imperative to win. 5 years of Macron is enough. The environmentalist family is united: it is a force for the French struck by a health crisis, by climate change and a very strong social breakdown ”.
Riding on the good results of his party in the European elections of 2019 and by the conquest of many cities during the municipal elections in 2020, the MEP affirms it, as if to be convinced:
"there is no ceiling of glass".
To read also: Regional: thanks to its exits, the PS regains the advantage over the Greens
Another candidate, Éric Piolle. The mayor of Grenoble wants to draw on his local experience. To
"transform climate issues into jobs"
, he wants to embody the work of green town halls to
"bring it to the next presidential election"
. Clearly, highlight the municipal showcase of EELV. As for Sandrine Rousseau, she wishes to assert herself as the most feminist candidate of this primary: "
I wear an ecology which embodies social and societal movements (...) on a progressive and innovative project".
According to her, "
it is time that a woman environmentalist arrives at the presidency of the Republic".
After the summer party days in Poitiers (Vienne) in mid-August, several televised debates will be organized to allow greater notoriety of the primary. To vote, 3 conditions: you will have to register online by September 12, be 16 years old and pay 2 euros without joining one of the movements that form the "environmentalist pole". Curiously enough, the organizers warn: there will be no verification of identity or nationality during the vote. Only an email and a phone number will suffice. For now, the party has one goal: to mobilize 100,000 to 200,000 voters. Times have changed, according to Julien Bayou: during the primary in 2011 or 2016, "
most of the candidates wanted to gain notoriety";
in 2021, the candidates “
feel the weight of the responsibility”.
At the same time, 470 km away, Anne Hidalgo, a possible PS candidate in the presidential election, is gathering her support in Villeurbanne (Rhône). The opportunity for the mayor of Paris, who has already refused the idea of a common primary on the left, to start to impose himself in his camp. With the triggering of a balance of power in the poll, the battle on the left has only just begun.
