Mischievous smile, mid-length hair framing a face with a determined look, the new hope of the Greens is called Marine Tondelier.
The great favorite of the ballot collected 46.97% of the votes of the members of Europe Écologie-les Verts (EELV), Saturday, November 26, after a first phase of voting aimed at appointing the next national secretary of the party. , a vacant position since the resignation of Julien Bayou at the end of September.
"Never has an environmental congress given such a clear direction in view of the gap that separates La Suite from the other lists. This is a historic score for our movement", welcomed in a press release, the lucky candidate, who arrived in the lead in front of his five opponents, promising "a benevolent movement".
Party campaigning more than a year ago, Marine Tondelier defends a "popular ecology", after a presidential election which divided the party around the cleavage between Sandrine Rousseau and Yannick Jadot.
A militant journey started in 2009
Born in 1986 in Hénin-Beaumont, in Pas-de-Calais, to a dentist mother and a doctor father, Marine Tondelier, from a wealthy family, was marked by injustice at a very young age.
Already in CP class, she confides that she “became aware of social inequalities” during the distribution of marks from the best student to the worst.
“I thought to myself that it was humiliating for the last, who surely had worries in his life which explained this and that he would surely be last all his life”, she confided in the Great Interviews of Reporterre.
This “violence of inequalities” forged his left-wing consciousness.
After a literary preparation, Marine Tondelier entered the Institute of Political Studies in Lille.
She focuses her thesis and her internships on health and social issues, up to a specialization in environmental health.
It was during her studies, at the age of 22, that Marine Tondelier began in politics.
She joined Europe Écologie-les Verts in 2009, shortly before the partial municipal elections in Hénin-Beaumont triggered by the dismissal of the various left-wing mayor Gérard Dalongeville, prosecuted for embezzlement of public funds.
She is present on the EELV list, led by Régine Calzia, who achieves less than 9% of the votes in the first round.
With a diploma in hand, Marine Tondelier became a parliamentary assistant to the environmentalist senator Aline Archimbaud from 2011 to 2015. She is in charge of health and social policy issues.
Then she worked for two years alongside Cécile Duflot, MP and former Minister of Housing, with whom she had good relations.
In June 2012, the young woman is an EELV candidate in the famous 11th district of Pas-de-Calais (Hénin-Beaumont), Marine Le Pen.
The same constituency where Jean-Luc Mélenchon decides to run the day after the second round of the presidential election.
Marine Tondelier is then eclipsed by the two camps, who are fighting a fierce battle on their land.
Unsurprisingly, she recorded a crushing defeat (1.63%) and chained them in the following elections.
The most severe took place in 2014, when the FN won the municipal election of Hénin-Beaumont in the first round.
That same year, the young shoot was elected municipal councilor.
Dialogue with "popular neighborhoods and rurality"
Eight years later, having become an opposition figure of the RN in Hénin-Beaumont and regional councilor of Hauts-de-France, the 36-year-old Northerner is aiming for the leadership of the party at the EELV congress of 2022. If she is elected, she wants to gather “one million sympathizers” in the party by the end of the mandate, hammers on the set of France 24 the activist, well resolved to defend her candidacy.
No question of bringing together an acquired environmentalist public.
Its objective is to work for “a popular ecology by reconnecting with working-class neighborhoods and rurality”.
For her, EELV must be “able to dialogue with all these people.”
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Political Tuesday © France 24
If she is elected to lead the party, Marine Tondelier will, according to her, “face [the] weaknesses [of the party] in a very lucid way”.
A formation marked by internal struggles, in particular between Yannick Jadot and the deputy Sandrine Rousseau, and weakened by the "affair" Julien Bayou.
One thing is certain, the elected representative of Hénin-Beaumont is tired of the quarrels within EELV which deprive the party of substantive debates.
"I consider that when the Greens are part of the diversion [for not acting against climate risk, editor's note], we are part of the problem", she adds.
“I say it in a very cash but benevolent way, because it is my party that I love with love.
But that has to change!”
On the alliance side, Marine Tondelier wants to reach out to La France insoumise.
“We have always worked together”, replies the one who was at the top of the “Osons Hénin-Beaumont” list in 2020, bringing together members of different left-wing parties (PS, PCF, LFI).
“No green city has been won alone, so of course we will continue to work together around political ecology.”
The future of humanity "in danger"
Because, she does not budge, taking into account ecological issues is at the heart of her fight.
Marine Tondelier, like a good part of the youth, is not immune to eco-anxiety.
“The human brain is not designed to deal head-on with this collapse of humanity.
So there are plenty of strategies: the creation of doubt or denial, for example”, says the elected official, determined to fight against “those who convince themselves that everything is fine, those who say that we will be able to continue as before, those who give billions of euros in advertising revenue to encourage the purchase of SUVs. We are jeopardizing the future of humanity and the habitability of the planet!”
The habitability of the Earth was one of the many issues discussed at COP27, which closed a few days ago.
Marine Tondelier certainly welcomes the agreement on the creation of aid to compensate vulnerable countries for losses and damages due to climate-induced disasters.
But that is not enough.
“When disasters are going to multiply and when people are going to have to leave their land, money will not be everything.
We always try to reassure ourselves with financial elements, but that will not be enough!”
Vegetarian since 2009, Marine Tondelier also wants to question “our consumption patterns”.
In August, she had defended Sandrine Rousseau, attacked after her call to "change mentality so that eating a steak cooked on a barbecue is no longer a symbol of virility" during the summer days of EELV, chapotée by Marine Tondelier since 2013.
The Hauts-de-France regional councilor explained that meat consumption had a significant impact on the planet, its production leading to deforestation, CO2 emissions and the drying up of water reserves.
“There is a link between patriarchy and the pressure on natural resources.
There are manly behaviors that have more impact on the planet and are also bad for life in society," she said.
While the climate emergency has never been so palpable, Marine Tondelier will have her work cut out for her if she is elected head of EELV, which scored poorly in the presidential election (4.6%) .
How to restore hope to activists?
The party “must be rebuilt”, insists the elected ecologist, who wishes to modify the internal rules, often considered complex and not very conducive to the conquest of power.
In addition, "EELV has new incarnations to present to this country, including deputies who are not well known because they are starting out in the industry, and we need to highlight them.
To have a free hand to govern the party, Marine Tondelier will have to obtain 60% of the seats in the Federal Council, thus forcing her to create alliances with other lists.
Reply on December 10.
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