In accordance with his commitments, he quickly called from his Parisian headquarters to "block the far right by depositing an Emmanuel Macron ballot in the ballot box".

A voting instruction warmly applauded by activists.

He also appealed for donations, a "financial support" essential to continue the "fights" of ecology.

"For the finances of the party, we cross our fingers until the end of the evening", still wants to believe his spokesman, Benjamin Lucas.

At HQ, the emotion was palpable, the faces serious.

"It's a disappointment," regrets Pauline Le Roux, 31, an expert in international relations.

"We have the impression that the priority of the French is far from what, for me, is the number one priority: the protection of biodiversity and the climate".

Same feeling with Mathis Gautier, 20, student: "I am very sad. When we are in the countryside, our eyes shine, we think that everything is possible. This is my first campaign and my first vote and I I just want to cry."

The euphoria of the municipal elections, when the ecologists had won several large cities including Lyon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, is a long way off.

The promoter of "the ecology of solutions", 54, who was making his first presidential campaign, struggled to mobilize defenders of the environmental cause, yet one of the first concerns of the French behind purchasing power.

Its detractors regretted a campaign that was too smooth, without a bang, even sluggish at times to electrify a "climate generation" brought to the world level by the Swedish Greta Thunberg.

"Learn lessons from"

“Lessons will have to be learned” because “ecology has not distinguished itself enough in its difference and the rupture it embodies compared to other political forces”, reacted the spokesperson for the candidate Delphine Batho.

The candidate for the "climate emergency", pro-European and holding a pragmatic line, also had to rely on his rival from the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, very present on the themes of ecology.

The environmental candidate Yannick Jadot, April 10, 2022 in Paris Martin BUREAU AFP

For political scientist Rémi Lefebvre, "the problem of ecology is its social base. It cannot be the working class because the ecologists do not reassure them at all. And the rather well-to-do, educated, urban base, tends to vote more for Macron".

This waltz-hesitation within the green family had manifested itself from the primary of the movement in September.

Yannick Jadot narrowly won (51%) the duel with the radical Sandrine Rousseau.

This Pyrrhic victory was to leave its mark.

And in early March, Sandrine Rousseau was expelled from her campaign team after vitriolic remarks were published in the press.

She particularly regretted a campaign without "story", in which she was not involved enough for her taste, a "mess" caused by "null strategists".

The environmental candidate had nevertheless tried to make his difference heard on nuclear power, promising the closure of around ten power plants by 2035. And developed his social component with the creation of a "climate ISF" and an increase in the minimum wage by 10%.

After the start of the war in Ukraine, Yannick Jadot had been one of the first to call for a European embargo on all Russian hydrocarbons and had been very incisive towards TotalEnergies, even going so far as to accuse the multinational of "complicity in crimes of war" because of its continued activity in Russia.

Total had announced defamation lawsuits.

A few days later, the environmental candidate had won his challenge by gathering around him, at the Zenith in Paris, nearly 4,000 supporters, the largest meeting in the history of French ecology.

But it was not enough.

© 2022 AFP