A green wave swept across major French cities on Sunday. Europe ecology-The Greens won several municipalities in the second round of municipal elections, such as in Lyon and its metropolis, Bordeaux, Strasbourg or Grenoble. Environmentalists hope to build on these victories to show their ability to govern and prepare for future electoral deadlines: the regional elections of 2021 and, above all, the presidential election of 2022. "It is not a green wave which, by nature, can ebb, there is a ratchet effect, "wants to believe the national secretary of the party Julien Bayou.
Confirmation of European dynamics
In addition to the victories in several regional capitals, EELV notably won the town halls of Poitiers, Besançon, Tours, Annecy and caused the socialist Martine Aubry to vacillate in Lille or the right-wing elected official Jean-Luc Moudenc in Toulouse. "We are a continuation of our pretty scores in the first round, and the unprecedented number of lists submitted, even if it is difficult to rejoice completely, given the record level of abstention", nuances MEP David Cormand , former party boss.
This historic harvest confirms their good European momentum in May 2019, driven by a global movement to mobilize against global warming. "Many scientific alerts around the environment have found resonance in the population and were materialized by an EELV vote, in favor of the collapse of the socialist vote," said Daniel Boy, research director at Sciences po Paris. “The Covid-19 crisis, interpreted by some as a consequence of the environmental crisis, has maintained this dynamic. "
The specialist in political ecology brings a nuance to this green wave: “The green vote mainly affects urban centers of culturally privileged class, university cities, senior managers, intermediate professions. Despite their efforts to develop a social discourse in parallel, environmentalists are much less audible in peri-urban areas, in the industrial east or in rural areas ”.
Proven locally to prepare for the future
In any case, environmentalists want to take advantage of their new local presence to show their ability to govern. “This is their challenge: to show that a small party of barely 10,000 members, little seasoned in the exercise of power, has competent personalities to lead large executives like the metropolis of Lyon, which has 1.3 million inhabitants ”, notes Daniel Boy.
"It's a huge challenge, but we have a generation of solid elected officials, ready, uninhibited in their relationship to power. Eric Piolle [re-elected Sunday in Grenoble] has shown the way to build a municipal ecologism and to show an ecological society ”, answers David Cormand.
Can EELV embody the central role on the left?
Sunday's victories are also explained by local unions made with the PS, PCF, LFI, or Génération.s. But in view of the presidential 2022, unity looks much more difficult. "Formerly, the PS had a central place in the plural left, but today, it is ecology that is at the heart of the rally," said David Cormand. “So I hope that it will be an ecologist who will lead this collective project. "
This Monday on RTL, the boss of the PS, Olivier Faure, said he was "ready to (stand) behind the one who will embody the social-ecological block" in 2022, without however specifying whether this candidate would be an ecologist or a socialist. Because this PS-EELV union is not unanimous on both sides, after the 2017 debacle and the 6.4% of Benoît Hamon. And the ambitions of some socialists or environmentalists could hinder the process.
"Yannick Jadot really wants to be a candidate but I am not at all certain that he is unanimous within the ecologists, who could prefer Eric Piolle to him," notes Daniel Boy. "And above all, the left will have no chance if it is not gathered to the rebellious, or Jean-Luc Mélenchon is not close to leaving the wheel, and even less in an alliance with the socialists. "
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- Yannick Jadot
- Presidential
- EELV
- Elections
- Municipal
- ecology