Paris (AFP)

The senator of Isère Guillaume Gontard was elected on Tuesday president of the new ecological group formed in the Senate after the senatorial elections on Sunday, the vice-presidency going to the senator EELV of Paris Esther Benbassa, we learned from the group .

Both Mr. Gontard and Ms. Benbassa were previously attached to the Communist-majority CRCE group.

The group has 12 members, Ms. Benbassa and Senator from Loire-Atlantique Ronan Dantec told AFP.

Both were given favorites in recent days to lead the new group.

The new group which held its first meeting on Tuesday will take the name of "environmental group, solidarity and territories", said Ms. Benbassa.

It is made up of a core of five senators already in place in the Senate: in addition to Ms. Benbassa and Mr. Gontard, Mr. Dantec and Joël Labbé, who sat in the RDSE group with a radical majority, as well as Sophie Taillé-Polian from Génération .s.

There are also six new elected environmentalists: Thomas Dossus and Raymonde Poncet (Rhône), Jacques Fernique (Bas-Rhin), Monique de Marco (Gironde), Guy Benarroche (Bouches-du-Rhône) and Daniel Salmon (Ille-et- Ugly).

The Corsican nationalist Paul Toussaint Parigi (Haute-Corse) joined them.

Mr. Gontard, who is not inset, had declared last week to AFP to be "reluctant" to the formation of a group with too marked EELV sounding, preferring to it "a more open connotation" and wishing in particular to give the image of "a more joyful, more inventive rurality".

Mr. Gontard was elected in 2017 on a list of union of the left / ecologist.

Things are slowly falling into place in the Senate after the renewal of half of its seats on Sunday: two group presidents, the PS Patrick Kanner and the centrist Hervé Marseille, were renewed Tuesday at the head of their respective group.

The PS group remains the 2nd group in the Senate with around 65 elected members, the composition not yet being definitively decided.

The list of members of the various political groups must be handed over to the Senate presidency before Monday 5 October at 4 p.m.

Component of the senatorial majority with the group Les Républicains, the centrist group should have around 53 elected officials, a figure which may still evolve.

The Senate's first group, The Republicans, will meet on Wednesday to elect its leadership team.

No change to be expected on this side either, only the candidacy of Bruno Retailleau having been received on Tuesday.

The group expects a range of 146 to 148 members.

For the LREM group, the choice will be made only on Thursday.

© 2020 AFP