Marches for the climate: in Paris, candidates make their voices heard

Guillaume Dominguez, edited by Gauthier Delomez 9:29 p.m., March 12, 2022

Is ecology at the heart of the campaign?

"No, of course not! It would have to be the major part of the presidential debates", answers a first Parisian demonstrator, followed by a second at the microphone of Europe 1: "The questions are asked, but we have candidates who are only half interested."

According to organizers, tens of thousands of people took part in the 150 climate marches organized on Saturday across France.

"Look Up", or "Look higher", was the motto of the rally.

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A strategic demonstration one month before the first round

On Boulevard Voltaire in Paris, despite the gray sky and the few drops of rain, 32,000 climate walkers mobilized for this strategic event, one month before the first round of the presidential election.

The distrust of the participants with regard to the candidates is embarrassing for the latter, far from the image that they want to send back.

Anne Hidalgo, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Yannick Jadot made the trip to Place de la Nation to support the movement.

The environmental candidate Yannick Jadot took part in the march for the climate in Paris.

Each of these contenders for the Elysée took the opportunity to place themselves as defenders of the environment and to blame others, like the candidate of Europe-Ecology the Greens.

"We try to talk about ecology every day. You have seen that our competitors, as they do nothing, do not want to talk about it. They are in denial to better justify their inaction", tackles Yannick Jadot at the microphone from Europe 1.

After this march, many activists now hope that concrete commitments will be made during the first debate between the candidates, scheduled for Monday evening on TF1.

And the organizers are already calling for a new series of climate marches on April 9, on the eve of the election.