Alexis Delafontaine//Photo credits: TELMO PINTO / NURPHOTO / NURPHOTO VIA AFP 12:20 p.m., January 25, 2024
Faced with the mobilization of farmers, environmentalists walk a tightrope between support for a precarious position and defense of the environment.
Marine Tondelier, head of the environmentalists, pleads for a renewal of dialogue and an overcoming of prejudices between the two parties.
The mobilization of farmers puts ecologists on a ridge, between support for a profession in great social difficulty and defense of the environment.
Some operators accuse environmentalists of killing their profession in the name of the environment.
This political sequence is complicated to manage for environmentalists, concedes an EELV elected official.
He even recognizes a deep opposition between his party and certain farmers.
It is therefore difficult for the Greens to defend them after having denounced agro-industry which is too polluting and subject to pesticide lobbies.
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Addressing the rural world
“I think there has been a lot of prejudice between farmers and environmentalists in both directions. But I think we have a duty in the current crisis, and not just in agricultural circles, to talk to each other more” , recognizes the head of environmentalists Marine Tondelier.
A fringe of elected environmentalists is campaigning for a change of discourse.
“Now we have to talk to rural people rather than city dwellers,” assures a deputy.
Indeed, the vast majority of elected environmentalists come only from metropolises like Paris, Lyon or Bordeaux.
So, to avoid a rout in the European elections in the coming months, environmentalists are trying to soften their position on subjects such as environmental standards or administrative burdens.