Lyon (AFP)

"Transpiring the desire to be mayors": during a trip to Lyon, EELV leader Yannick Jadot urges his troops to be ambitious in the municipal elections in March, where environmentalists hope to impose themselves in several cities of importance, from Rouen to Bordeaux via Besançon or Villeurbanne.

For a month, the pension conflict has dominated the debates, and Yannick Jadot, greeted at the exit of Part Dieu station by CGT leaflets, knows this. Whatever, he continues to go and support the environmental candidates in the regions to ward off the risk of an electoral campaign crushed by social debate.

After Rouen, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Strasbourg and even Rennes, it is in Lyon and Villeurbanne that the former head of the list in the European elections in May, which changed the size of the EELV (3rd political force with 13.5%) , devoted a lightning visit.

Environmentalists are encouraged by good polls. In the metropolis, their candidate Bruno Bernard is for the moment the only one able to compete with the emblematic mayor of Lyon Gérard Collomb.

In Villeurbanne, the former assistant Béatrice Vessiller is one of the favorites in the succession of the socialist mayor Jean-Paul Bret, who does not run again and who leaves a majority divided between support for LREM and support for the PS. If we add Lyon intra-muros, where Grégory Doucet is in pole position, "we can really win the three" communities, rejoices Bruno Bernard.

So in the country premises, glass of cider and galette des rois in hand, Yannick Jadot delivers a speech of conquest. "It is no longer a question of being substitutes and nice partners, who we fight among majorities that we do not lead," he says.

He concedes: "Gérard Collomb was once the mayor he needed in Lyon, as Chirac and Delanoë were the one he needed in Paris, as Chaban-Delmas and Juppé were the one he needed in Bordeaux".

- Divergences in Paris -

This time, hastily added Yannick Jadot, "the time for environmentalists has come. My request is that you embody, that you transpire this desire to be mayor, to be the boss". The activists laugh: they know that the transformation of their party, culturally built on the challenge of the established order, into a party in power is not easy.

"I have done a lot of campaigns and we said + We will aim for 15% and if we have 10% we will be happy +. But this one is really serious", assures Benjamin Badouard, in second position on the list of the Lyon constituency -Is at AFP.

Result, testifies the director of campaign of Bernard Bernard, Axel Marin: "In 2014 one wondered how one was going to make to build lists, there people fight to appear above".

In many large and medium-sized cities, EELV is at the head of emancipated environmental lists of former left allies. The candidates focus on the thermal renovation of housing, the development of public transport and food.

A sign of the new spirit of responsibility, the fight against insecurity is placed by Béatrice Vessiller among her three campaign priorities in Villeurbanne.

But the small pebble in the shoe of the internal divergences threatens regularly to disturb the progress of EELV.

Recently, the mention by the candidate in Paris, David Belliard, of a hypothetical coalition with the dissident walker Cédric Villani has been analyzed as "a blunder" by the national secretary Julien Bayou, and has puzzled many activists.

But Yannick Jadot supported it and he even judged Sunday "awkward" the displayed position of Julien Baypou. He explains to AFP: "When I hear that Villani would be a macronist, no he is above all Villani, he is not Benjamin Griveaux. It's a question of attitude, you have to gather and open the way. Julien says + No unless +, I say + Yes if + "Cédric Villani dissociates himself from the government.

These debates, "it's a shame, we've been out of this for some time. We have to focus on deadlines again," sighs Béatrice Vessiller.

© 2020 AFP