Nantes (AFP)
The deputy Matthieu Orphelin is running for the head of the list of the collective "For an ecological, citizen, united Pays de la Loire region" for the regional elections in June, he told AFP on Friday.
"We are going to be the first ecological, united and democratic region in France", declared the elected representative of Maine-et-Loire in a message addressed to the signatories of this call, launched in October 2020 and supported by EELV, Génération Écologie et Génération .s.
"Everyone" had the opportunity to apply among the nearly 1,800 signatories of the appeal, said Matthieu Orphelin to AFP.
A list commission will propose "one or more scenarios, which will then be submitted to a vote of confidence by the signatories" to finally designate at the beginning of March the person who will be head of the list, he explained.
"For ecology to gain in 2022, we must reach one or more regions in 2021," said Orphelin.
He left the LREM group in February 2019, citing in particular insufficient progress on "climate, ecological and social issues".
Before becoming a member of Parliament, Matthieu Orphelin, 48, native of Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique), was notably elected regional advisor for Europe Ecology for Pays de la Loire in 2010. He was spokesperson for Nicolas Hulot from 2012 to 2015.
The Pays de la Loire region, chaired by the socialist Jacques Auxiette from 2004 to 2015, was won by Bruno Retailleau (LR) in the last elections.
The president of the LR group in the Senate has since given way to Christelle Mor Anglais (LR).
For the regional elections in June, the PS appointed the deputy for Mayenne, Guillaume Garot, to be head of the list.
The RN invested in January the MEP Hervé Juvin.
For its part, LREM appointed in December the former president of the Assembly and former Minister of Ecology François de Rugy as "leader".
© 2021 AFP