Henry Jenn is 81 years old. Fifty years ago, he was, with his substitute Solange Fernex (who died in 2006), the first candidate in history to stand in political elections under an environmentalist label. It was in the legislative elections of 1973, in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), a year before the candidacy of the ecologist René Dumont in the presidential election of 1974. Half a century later, while Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV) has launched a major consultation to build its new political identity, its Haut-Rhin section has chosen to return to these fifty years which have transformed an essentially associative movement into a political party.
A day of conferences, testimonials and meetings between pioneers and young activists, is organized by EELV, Saturday, March 4 in Kingersheim, near Mulhouse, to reflect on the past and better consider the future. “We try to highlight the idea of transmission. Because to decide where you are going, you have to know where you come from. However, we are not starting from nothing; there is no point in reinventing the powder »believes Cécile Germain-Ecuer, regional councilor and member of the EELV Alsace office, in charge of organizing the event.
The story is little known, but it was from the South of Alsace that the idea of making environmental protection a political program emerged in the early 1970s. Environmentalist associations then fought against the realization of major industrial projects in the Rhine Valley, such as the establishment of a lead chemical plant in Marckolsheim (Bas-Rhin), which was finally abandoned, or the construction of the first French nuclear power plant, in Fessenheim (Haut- Rhine). Interests much bigger than them. “We said to ourselves that we had to find a way to be heard by our elected officials. We had to tickle them where they are most sensitive: the ballot paper”remembers Henri Jenn, at the time ornithologist and local head of the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO).
Ecology and Survival
A party is created: Ecology and Survival, which will later become Les Verts then EELV. The candidate Jenn will collect barely more than 2% of the votes in the legislative elections of 1973, in Mulhouse. He will represent this new movement until the creation of the Greens in 1984, before devoting himself exclusively to associative action. Today, he defines himself as a “optimistic-pessimistic”satisfied with the growing awareness within society, also satisfied that ecologists have become more realistic in their commitment, but also frustrated that the protection of environments and species is not further defended.
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