What can the new Ecology Democracy Solidarity group change at the Assembly?

Neither in the opposition nor in the majority: the ninth parliamentary group, Ecology Democracy Solidarity (EDS), launched Tuesday, May 19, visibly intends to reinvent the famous "at the same time" of Emmanuel Macron.

This new group wants to be "positive" and of "proposal" but not of opposition, explained the former "walker" Matthieu Orphelin, close to Nicolas Hulot, during a videoconference. "With this terrible Covid-19 crisis, we have to go beyond the cleavages and the postures, we have to collectively build the world according to", he added, he who will co-chair the group with Paula Forteza in work-study program, every six months.

"We will push and support all decisions up to the stakes, but will be able to oppose in all other cases", warn the 17 deputies of the EDS group in a joint declaration, saying in an "open approach" and calling the deputies who meet there "to associate with it".

3 words, 3 major imperatives, 3 inseparable priorities. With this # COVID19 crisis, we need to overcome the cleavages and postures, and collectively build the world after. #EDS, which we are creating today, will be a group of proposals, of coalition, of innovation pic.twitter.com/JVDRs3YVmO

Pending possible future rallies, they are seven members of La République en Marche (LREM) to have joined EDS: Émilie Cariou, Annie Chapelier, Guillaume Chiche, Yolaine de Courson, Hubert Julien-Laferrière, Aurélien Taché and Cédric Villani.

Lower defections than expected due to pressure from the LREM leadership, but which still deprived the group led by Gilles Le Gendre, who now finds himself with 288 deputies, from an absolute majority in the National Assembly.

Proposals from the "The day after" platform

Refusing any "slingshot", Cédric Villani affirmed, Tuesday morning, on France Inter that "at a pivotal moment", these elected officials intended to put "strong proposals on the table when everything will restart".

Revaluation of professions on the front line in the crisis, "universal income from the age of 18", bill on animal welfare, or even greater place for science ... Taking turns speaking during by videoconference, each of the 17 elected representatives reported on the priorities set.

FR NW PKG ENROBE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

In particular, they plan to rely on the online collaborative platform "Le jour après", launched at the beginning of April by Matthieu Orphelin, Paula Forteza and Aurélien Taché and which collected nearly 10,000 contributions in a few weeks.

Several have also assured, like Delphine Batho, that the group Écologie Démocratie Solidarité would be "the sounding board" of civil society.

"The path is indisputable"

The question of ideological coherence is however raised, in particular because of the presence of the former Minister of Ecology, who is very critical of the policy led by Emmanuel Macron and La République on the march for three years.

"I see in our desire to bring together the delayed effects of the battles against glyphosate or the ratification of Ceta, of the mobilization of youth for the climate but also the traces left by the resignation of Nicolas Hulot or the debates on the suppression of the ISF, explains Delphine Batho in Liberation. Everyone has their sensitivity, their degree of commitment but the journey is undeniable. "

As for the opposition-majority divide, the member for Deux-Sèvres, known for her outspokenness and her struggles for ecology and reducing the influence of lobbies, believes that it is dated and that "ecology restructures the political landscape between Earthlings and environmental destroyers. "

In France, the left wing of the majority wants to influence post-Covid-19

However, it is the ecological emergency that brings these 17 deputies together first. Will this priority axis allow them to weigh in on the debates?

"If it is agreed that this five-year period will be marked by an inflection towards the social, towards much more industrial sovereignty, towards a form of new welfare state, then indeed they can have an important role to play", judges the historian Jean Garrigues, political history specialist, on the antenna of France 24.

Unless the majority adapts by also making a turn. LREM deputies are already working internally on an initiative on the social and ecological axis, called "In common". One way, no doubt, to cut the grass under the feet of the EDS group.

With AFP

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