2023-11-30 09:02:53
She was 70 years old and had a long career as an activist. European MP Michèle Rivasi died this Wednesday, after being hospitalized due to a heart attack in Brussels (Belgium), we learned from the management of Europe Ecology the Greens (EELV). The elected official, who was to go to the European Parliament, had been a figure of EELV for many years. “She was one of those tireless activists, friendly, authentic, accessible. We mourn a great lady of political ecology. All our thoughts to his family,” reacted the party’s national secretary Marine Tondelier on X (ex-Twitter).
I am extremely saddened to learn of the sudden disappearance of Michèle Rivasi, an environmentalist MEP.
She was one of those tireless activists, friendly, authentic, accessible.
We mourn a great lady of political ecology. All our thoughts to his family pic.twitter.com/pkSzCJIY8k
— Marine Tondelier (@marinetondelier) November 29, 2023
Former EELV presidential candidate Yannick Jadot praised a “tireless fighter for ecology”, welcoming “so many shared struggles”. “An ecology fighter has passed away,” noted for his part Green MEP Marie Toussaint upon hearing this news. The co-president of the left group in the European Parliament Manon Aubry praised a “huge hard worker, who fought without shuddering the abuses of the giants of the pharmaceutical industry and the lobbies”. “Ecology today loses one of its great figures,” added the EELV deputy for Paris Sandrine Rousseau. Respect Michèle for your journey (…) We will miss your voice. »
Terrible disappearance of Michèle Rivasi, tireless fighter for ecology, from Criirad to the European Parliament!
So many shared struggles!
All my condolences to his family and loved ones. pic.twitter.com/2KfAqEsYkp
— Yannick Jadot (@yjadot) November 29, 2023
Michèle Rivasi had been elected to the European Parliament since 2009. Before that, she had been a deputy for Drôme (from 1997 to 2002), general councilor of this same department between 2008 and 2009, as well as municipal councilor of Valence. In 2016, Michèle Rivasi was also a candidate in the EELV primary for the presidential election. She obtained 40.75% of the votes, losing to Yannick Jadot.
The parliamentarian had made the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster one of her spearheads. In 1986, then an associate professor of natural sciences, she founded the Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity (Criirad), very shortly after the Chernobyl accident which occurred on April 26, 1987. The idea was then to oppose the state monopoly on nuclear studies, as recalled France Bleu Drôme Ardèche.
During the Covid crisis, the positioning of this elected official labeled as anti-vax and opposed to the health pass, which she had compared to apartheid in July 2021, had sparked controversy in even inside one’s own camp.
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