There are still a few hours to wait.
The finalists of the ecological primary will be known this Sunday afternoon.
The 122,780 people registered in the first round had to decide between five contenders in this race for the presidential election of 2022 (April 10 - April 24): the MEP Yannick Jadot, the mayor of Grenoble (Isère) Eric Piolle, the economist Sandrine Rousseau, MP Delphine Batho and entrepreneur Jean-Marc Governatori.
The participation record for an ecological primary was until then 32,000 people in 2011. The usual conjectures on the propensity of environmental activists to defeat the favorites (Nicolas Hulot in 2011, Cécile Duflot in 2016) are swept away by the quadrupling of the electorate. The advantage of online voting is that the ballot, which began on Thursday, will be easy to count. After the closing, at 5 pm, the organizers, still behind closed doors, “will have a few minutes to recover from their emotions” when they discover the results, smiles Hélène Hardy, one of them.
They will then come and present them to the press around 5:30 p.m., at the Pavillon des canals, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris.
It is in this same place that each candidate is called upon to say a few words, from 6 p.m., a way of showing an ecological family more united than in the past.
This did not prevent some from organizing their own election night with their supporters in Paris.
Sandrine Rousseau could threaten Eric Piolle
"We have no idea of the result, really ... Anything can happen", we whisper in the entourage of Yannick Jadot.
Building on its success in the 2019 Europeans, it enjoys the status of favorite and the enlargement of the electorate could promote its notoriety.
In the team of ecofeminist Sandrine Rousseau, we are “confident enough to go to the second round”. "The campaign went as we wished, we started early last October because there was work, and Sandrine now has very good visibility," we continue. The outsider emerged in the media during the Summer Days in Poitiers (Vienne), notably with a much applauded speech in front of thousands of activists. Sharp interventions in the media over the following weeks, at the cost of some controversy, ended up making Sandrine Rousseau a serious candidate in the second round.
This tendency is enough to unsettle the Eric Piolle camp.
The mayor of Grenoble was considered Yannick Jadot's only real rival in recent months.
It has increased the number of trips, meticulously weaving its network of support, developing a program of specific proposals such as the climate change tax and the creation of 25,000 municipal farms.
But Sandrine Rousseau now disputes the vote of radical environmentalists, who expect the future president to confront the financial markets to hasten the ecological transition.
The two camps are now looking at each other in faience.
“There are more affinities with the Jadot teams, even if it's a different line and way of doing things,” says a lieutenant of Sandrine Rousseau.
A peaceful campaign compared to the 2010s
The former minister Delphine Batho, who knew how to impose the theme of “degrowth” in the televised debates, also has his chances. His main handicap at the start was not belonging to EELV (Europe Écologie-Les Verts). "But members are now very much in the minority
(Editor's note: less than 14%)
among the voters", rejoices MP Hubert Julien-Laferrière, one of his spokespersons. Barring a huge surprise, Jean-Marc Governatori and his “central ecology” should not be able to qualify.
The ecologists all greet in chorus a primary with peaceful debates, far from the spectacle of division of the years 2010. Even their future adversary, the candidate Insoumis, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, distributed to them a good point, Friday in Liberation: “There is a certain panache on their part to show the arc of their positions ”.
Before knocking: "Today the Greens are more a center-left party than pure ecology, because all parties have become environmentalists".
EELV can however boast of a good image among 55% of French people, according to a survey carried out by Odoxa-Backbone Consulting for Le Figaro on Friday.
But the challenge for the nominee is that the party is seen as neither “realistic” (58%) nor “credible” (54%).
