• “We are all terrified by this presidential campaign which is not interested in young people and their future”, points out Sasha De Laage.

    Based on this observation, with a dozen friends, he launched the Relais Jeunes, a grand tour of France which begins on Monday.

  • On the program: 3,000 km and twenty stage cities before completing the loop on June 10 in Paris.

    In the meantime, conferences, debates, frescoes of the climate, visits that they organize with the support of fifty partner youth associations.

  • The idea?

    Refocus, wherever the caravan passes, the political debate on the issues most concerning for young people.

    “Either ecology, social inequalities and the crisis of democracy”, target the organizers.

The departure is scheduled for 12 p.m. *, this Sunday, from the Climate Academy, a participatory place dedicated to young people located in the former town hall of the 4th arrondissement of the capital.

From there, it will be a question of joining Rouen by bike, for an arrival on February 24, to stop there for two days, and to resume the road, still pedaling.

Direction this time Amiens.

For a little over three months, the Relais Jeunes, a major mobilization launched by a dozen friends and co-built with around fifty partner associations, plans to go through twenty stopover towns and travel by bike and on foot. 3,000 km through France.

Until closing the loop in Paris, June 10.

“We will be on the eve of the first round of the legislative elections,” recalls Lou Garcia, member of the Relais Jeunes partnership division.

“Terrified by this presidential campaign which is disinterested in youth”

The purpose of this relay is to “give the floor back to young people, absent from political considerations”, proclaims the ten or so organizers.

“We are all terrified by this presidential campaign which is not interested in young people and their future”, slips Sasha De Laage.

More specifically, the founder of the Relais Jeunes notes “a triple crisis in France”.

Ecological already, the collective referring to the various IPCC reports showing that the way we inhabit the planet is not sustainable.

“But also social, engages Sasha De Laage.

Inequalities have widened like never before, [notably] during the Covid crisis in France.

»

A triple crisis

He then cites the Oxfam report of January 2021, which calculated that French billionaires got richer by 175 billion euros between March and December 2020, the equivalent of twice the budget of the public hospital.

At the same time, a million French people have potentially fallen into poverty according to charities, pointed out this same report.

"Finally, the crisis is also democratic with record abstention in the last elections, in particular among young people", continues Sasha De Laage, who explains it in particular by the fact that, "for decades, our representatives have been elected on programs that they hardly ever hold".

“The result is an absolute lack of trust in them, especially among the youth,” he continues.

Meet local youth

These are the three issues that the Relais Jeunes hopes to put back at the center of the political debate wherever it goes.

Without interacting directly with candidates or their campaign teams, specify the organizers.

"The idea is precisely to reclaim this debate by getting out of the traditional political game with its partisan and short-termist logic", insists Sasha De Laage.

The organizers of the Relais Jeunes turned to the fifty or so local youth associations.

In each stage town, committees have been set up to develop a program of events based on conferences, climate frescoes, visits, concerts and meetings.

With each time, in common thread, a chosen theme.

The focus will thus be on health and eco-anxiety in Montpellier (stage from April 22 to 25), migration and solidarity in Lille (March 3 to 7), mobility in Aix-en-Provence (April 6-8 ), biodiversity in Grenoble (March 31 to April 2), employment and ecological transition in Amiens (February 28 to March 2).

There will still be commonalities between all these stages.

"They will begin in particular with the reading of the manifesto that we have written and that we will carry during the trip, rolled up in a wooden baton like a relay race", explain the organizers.

This manifesto is not a plea “but more an open forum for young people who no longer find themselves in a breathless collective narrative, specifies Sasha De Laage.

The idea is to obtain as many signatures as possible, both on site, in each of the cities, but also online, on our website, where this manifesto is also published.

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“To show that we are not only anxious but also full of energy”

This is also another objective aimed at by this Youth Relay.

A study, published in The Lancet last fall, came to the conclusion that 75% of the 10,000 young people questioned said they found the future frightening, particularly in view of the climate crisis.

"We want to show, with this great mobilization, that our generation is not only anxious, but also full of energy and driven by the desire to change things", insists Elisa Alameda, another member of the organizing team of this great march.

Over these more than three months on the road, the Relais Jeunes hopes to meet and be met by at least 20,000 young people.

“Not only in the stopover cities, moreover,” insists Sasha De Laage, to remind you that it is quite possible to mingle with the dozen or so organizers of the Relais Jeunes to pedal and walk between the cities.

"All you have to do is register on the Relais Jeunes website, if possible 48 hours beforehand," says Pierre Taieb, who will be at all stages.

It's free, we will just ask for a contribution to the costs for those who wish to be housed and fed" And there is no fear of being dropped by the peloton... "Everyone can participate, whatever his sporting level, reassures Pierre Taieb.

We will do a maximum of four hours of cycling per day.

Planet

A job that makes sense rather than a big salary… The big upheaval in the big schools?

Society

Global warming: Why eco-anxiety affects more and more teenagers

*The organizers of the Relais Jeunes meet at the Climate Academy from 10 a.m. this Sunday for a free-price breakfast followed by two hours of entertainment before the big start at 12 p.m.

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