It will necessarily be a woman: the members of Europe Ecologie-les Verts will sketch this Saturday evening the portrait of their new leader among six contenders, during a first vote to try to "
refound
" a party still divided and not very audible.
The new leader of the party should not be officially known on Saturday evening, but the results of this "
decentralized congress
" in the regions, where the 11,000 members could vote, will make it possible to know the great balance of power.
The votes ended at 5:00 p.m. and the counting was underway at the end of the day, we learned from the management.
The members also had to elect the members of the party's future federal council and the 400 delegates who will formally appoint the new national secretary at a "
federal congress
" scheduled for December 10 in Rungis (Val-de-Marne).
If no motion reaches 50% of the votes on Saturday, negotiations will begin for mergers.
restore hope
After the 4.6% of the environmental candidate for the presidential election, Yannick Jadot, who failed to impose himself when the ecological issue became a priority, the new leader will first have to restore hope to his troops. .
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She will also have to reconcile the party, marked by internal struggles, in particular between Yannick Jadot and the deputy Sandrine Rousseau, and weakened by
the “affair”
Julien Bayou.
The outgoing national secretary is accused by Sandrine Rousseau of psychological violence against an ex-companion, which he disputes.
Six women are in the running but the fate of the party should mainly be played between three of them.
Marine Tondelier, elected in Hénin-Beaumont (Pas-de-Calais) and member of the outgoing management, is considered the favorite.
Party campaign more than a year ago, and member of the outgoing management, she is supported by Julien Bayou.
Her two challengers are Sophie Bussière, New-Aquitaine regional councilor and supported by MEP Yannick Jadot, and Mélissa Camara, elected from Lille supported by eco-feminist MP Sandrine Rousseau and part of the left wing of EELV.
"Masify" the party
Three other women present more confidential motions, but with a strategic role in the event of a merger of the list.
The former regional candidate in Brittany, Claire Desmares-Poirrier, defends the territories, federalism and decline.
The head of elections, Hélène Hardy, calls for turning the party more towards working-class neighborhoods, and the member of the executive bureau, Géraldine Boyer, claims a libertarian heritage.
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Beyond the different sensitivities, there is among the candidates "
a desire to build (...).
What we have done at the city level, it is time to do it at the national level
”, underlined on France inter Éric Piolle, the ecological mayor of Grenoble, and support of Marine Tondelier.
The candidates all have in common that they want to "
massify
" the party, especially in the direction of rural areas and working-class neighborhoods.
Most of them also want to “
refound
” the party “, by modifying its internal rules, often considered complex and not conducive to the conquest of power.
But they differ on the position vis-à-vis the left alliance Nupes, and on their relationship to radicalism.
Disagreements over the Nupes
Marine Tondelier like Sophie Bussière distance themselves from Nupes, deeming it necessary to work first on "
a new major party of ecology
", and claim an independent list for Europeans.
But Sophie Bussière is trying to stand out by criticizing the outgoing leadership – and therefore Marine Tondelier – who “
has not kept her promises of party transformations
”, according to her.
Conversely, Mélissa Camara defends the Nupes, in which EELV must, she says, be "
a driving force of the left
".
At the Europeans of 2024, she advocates not closing the door to a common list.
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Mélissa Camara, who carries the fights of "
ecofeminism, anti-racism, anti-capitalism and intersectionality
", defends "
a form of radicalism, of rupture
" and wishes that the party find its full place in the movements of disobedience. civil.
While supporting a form of radicalism, Marine Tondelier denounces "
the buzz
" and "
the twitterization
" of political life, in a barely veiled tackle to Sandrine Rousseau.
Which makes Melissa Camara say that “
among my friends, I have the impression that it's anything but Rousseau
”.