• The ex-walker Matthieu Orphelin is at the head of an environmentalist list in the Pays de la Loire.

    This Tuesday, in Angers, several national figures of ecology came to support this candidacy during a football match.

  • The campaign has grown in recent days, after a poll giving Nicolas Hulot's protégé the winner on the evening of the second round on June 27.

  • A victory would be eminently symbolic for EELV, which has the ambition to confirm its good results in European and municipal elections in order to assert its leadership on the left.

From our journalist in Angers,

"Do we have the right to win or has the end result been negotiated?"

"A few hours before the Blues match against Germany at the Euro, a funny meeting was organized Tuesday afternoon in Angers.

"" The French team of ecologists ", made up of its national figures, faced the candidates of the ecological list for the regional ones in Pays de la Loire, carried by the ex-walker Matthieu Orphelin.

On the futsal pitch, the heat is stifling.

The bodies are dripping, but Yannick Jadot, white shorts and blue jersey, warms up by multiplying the jokes.

“You are going to lose, but fortunately for you, it is not a regional competence!

", He jokes alongside the deputy and former minister Delphine Batho.

Behind the floodgates and the well-established communication plan, a strategic stake: after the breakthrough in the Europeans of 2019 and the nice catches in the 2020 municipal elections, the Greens hope to switch at least one region into their wallet, a few months before the presidential election .

Orphan accused of "opportunism" for his alliance with LFI

And last week, an Ipsos poll for France 3 gave Matthieu Orphelin the lead in the second round, a first for a list stamped environmentalist. “There is a real dynamic around his candidacy. Matthieu is a local guy who has the right profile to bring people together. His parliamentary work has shown his selflessness. The feverishness of his opponents in recent days is worth all the polls, “slips the national secretary of the party Julien Bayou, after a first goal.

Because on these lands historically on the right, stronghold of François Fillon and Bruno Retailleau, and despite a socialist parenthesis of 11 years in 2004, the game looks far from won. In the wake of this opinion poll, the campaign became tense. The outgoing President Les Républicains, Christelle Morancais, has thus castigated "the alliance of shame" between the former deputy LREM and La France insoumise, qualifying the political course of Matthieu Orphelin as a "model of upward spirits and opportunism" .

Between two actions, the disappointed macronism responds to criticism.

“Suddenly I'm too far to the right, once too far to the left, I'm 100% environmentalist.

But to make believe that the red tanks arrive in Pays de la Loire, frankly… In truth, our adversaries arrived with their hands in their pockets three weeks ago, underestimating us.

We've been campaigning on the ground for nine months, on everyday themes.

"

Take the place of the PS in the leadership on the left

Nicolas Hulot's protégé hopes to pass the list of Socialist deputy Guillaume Garot, allied to the PCF, and then achieve the union to win in the second round.

“We are going to achieve what nobody imagined.

For the first time, the useful vote is the green vote!

», Slips the native of Saint-Nazaire.

Because what also plays in Pays de la Loire is the battle for the leadership of the left. Ten months before the presidential election, EELV, which has a head of the list in 12 out of 13 regions, hopes to supplant the socialists here in Pays-de-la-Loire as in Ile-de-France, in New Aquitaine, in Center-Val-de-Loire, in Brittany or in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, to arrive in a strong position at the table of union negotiations for 2022.

“We want to show that our latest electoral victories are not just a wave, which can ebb, but a real tidal wave. The scale of the region is all the more important, since it can be a big sister for the communities which want to advance on the ecological emergency ”, underlines Julien Bayou. The boss of EELV hopes that a regional victory will allow to launch the dynamics before the ecological primary, organized in September. “The polls, as often, underestimate us. But we will already double our elected officials compared to 2015. And we will put the package to win one or two regions, which is starting to worry the right, which seeks to disqualify us, ”adds Yannick Jadot, who is increasing support trips throughout the country.

In Pays de la Loire, the local right has thus called for a "republican front" against "the extreme left" in the middle of the towers.

And, ironically, it is another walker and ex-elected EELV who could play the referees.

In recent days, rumors have reported negotiations between the majority candidate François de Rugy and the right.

The visit of former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe to the LREM and LR candidates the same weekend gave credit to this hypothesis, still not denied by those concerned.

Elections

Regional: Alliances with variable geometry on the left

Elections

Regional in Pays-de-la-Loire: Linda Rigaudeau, the head of the list who wants to "change the system"

Candidates in Pays-de-la-Loire:

  • "Together, united and civic ecology", by Matthieu Orphelin (Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, La France insoumise)

  • "Making the workers' camp heard", by Eddy Le Beller (Lutte Ouvrière)

  • “Un nos monde Pays de la Loire”, by Linda Rigaudeau (Miscellaneous)

  • "The region of all progress", by François de Rugy (La République en Marche, MoDem)

  • "Union of the Right and the Center", by Christelle Mor Anglais (The Republicans, Union of Democrats and Independents)

  • “Debout les pays de la Loire”, by Cécile Bayle de Jessé (Debout la France)

  • “Printemps des Pays de Loire”, by Guillaume Garot (Socialist Party, Communist Party, PRG, Place Publique, GDS, Cap Ecologie)

  • “For a region that protects you”, by Hervé Juvin (National Gathering)