The former deputy walker, who announced in February not to seek a new mandate in the Assembly, will leave the regional council "in the coming weeks or the next few months" and "commit otherwise in favor of ecology “, he told AFP, confirming information from Ouest-France.
This announcement comes a few days after the publication of his book "When is ecology on a large scale? What remains to be done" (Rue de l'Echiquier).
"There is the need to continue all these fights a little differently. I am turning a page in my life, I am going to engage elsewhere than in politics", declared the former head of the citizen list for the 2021 regional elections, supported by LFI and EELV in the first round, then joined by the PS and the PC in the second round.
"We scored the highest score for ecologists in France at the regional level. From the start of the mandate, we had noted the fact that I would stay at the start to pass on my experience, but it was understood that I was not intended to stay for the entire mandate. “, explained the one who was also a spokesperson for the EELV presidential candidate Yannick Jadot.
"I like politics but I think we need people not to be attached to their mandate, and then there was a desire in me to carry out these fights for biodiversity, the climate, ecology differently. There is not just one form of commitment,” he stressed.
Matthieu Orphelin was vice-president of the Pays de la Loire regional council responsible for education and learning between 2010 and 2015. He joined Emmanuel Macron at the end of 2016 and was elected deputy for the 1st constituency of Maine-et -Loire, before leaving LREM in February 2019 judging that the presidential majority was "not at the right pace on any of the major projects of ecological transition".
At the regional council, he will hand over to Claire Schweitzer, municipal councilor of Angers (LFI).
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