In the polls too, the green candidate is becalmed, around 6% of voting intentions, far from his competitor on the left Jean-Luc Mélenchon who is trying to extract a few useful voting points from him to rally, on the evening of April 10, the second round of the presidential election.

"Be careful, you must not fall," says a local activist to the MEP who is struggling to return from a tour in the mud for the needs of the cameras.

"We have our feet in the earth, in the elements," laughs Yannick Jadot.

"It's slippery but we're holding on, and we're moving forward," he adds, well aware of the metaphor for his own campaign.

For the ten days that separate them from the first round, the ecologists have planned all-out trips: "every day, a morning radio, then a trip", confides his entourage.

"To provide images to TVs that need them".

Asked about Mr. Mélenchon who opted for big meetings without much other travel, betting on his "turtle" rhythm, which left for the campaign before everyone else, this cowardly source: "Mélenchon is tired, it's not a strategy".

While the "hare" Jadot insists: "I'm in great shape. It's like a sports competition, you have to finish well at the end. It's time to be good, to be on the pitch."

Yannick Jadot on the beach of Hilion (Côtes-d'Armor) on March 29, 2022, surrounded by Delphine Batho (G), Dlaire Desmares-Poirrier, president of EELV, and Senator Daniel Salmon (D).

DAMIEN MEYER AFP

He landed at Hillion thinking he would find a beach he knows well, having already come there for political purposes.

But Tuesday, no luck, "it's a bit annoying, there's no algae, a storm took everything away in February", informs the representative of France Nature Environnement who welcomes him.

Yannick Jadot then sets out to show the causes and consequences of green algae.

These are clearly visible when a shovelful reveals black sand rotting with hydrogen sulphide.

"Agility"

"Above-ground farms spread the effluents which, in contact with photosynthesis, are transformed into green algae", the MEP learnedly declares.

"It's a major health problem, there have been deaths and the beach has been mostly closed."

To solve it, the ecologist says he is counting on the "13 billion public money" from which France benefits, wanting to direct the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union towards a peasant model respecting the soil.

The unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the Brittany region Claire Desmares-Poirrier as well as the head of the spokesperson Delphine Batho accompanied him.

The latter was optimistic about the end of the campaign, with AFP: "This is the decisive phase (...) There will be a huge gap between the polls and the results".

To achieve this, "you need movement, agility, an ability to react to current events," she says.

The targeted electorate is in particular the one who was disappointed by Emmanuel Macron, explains the MP for Deux-Sèvres: "Those who hoped for a majority of ideas and modernity and ended up with climate inaction, lobbies and McKinsey “, the consulting firm used by the power and at the heart of a controversy.

On the coach back to Saint-Brieuc, while Yannick Jadot is demanding a second share of kouign amann, the candidate's privilege, the Breton activists, at the front, sing a song that evokes environmental struggles.

© 2022 AFP