Among the six contenders for the direction of Europe Ecology-The Greens (EELV), Marine Tondelier took a good head start, Saturday, November 26, obtaining 46.97% votes in a membership vote, based on partial results based on 90% of regions and reported by management. The decentralized ballot ended at 5 p.m. Some 11,000 members could take part. They were also to elect the four hundred delegates who will formally appoint the new national secretary at a federal congress scheduled for December 10 in Rungis (Val-de-Marne).
After the 4.6% of the environmental candidate for the presidential election, MEP Yannick Jadot, the challenge for the next presidency is to restore hope to the troops. He will also have to reconcile the party, marked by internal struggles, in particular between Mr. Jadot and the ecofeminist deputy Sandrine Rousseau. EELV is also weakened by the accusations of psychological violence brought against the outgoing national secretary, Julien Bayou, by a former companion, accusations which he disputes and which were widely publicized by Mme Rousseau.
“Willingness to Build”
Marine Tondelier, elected in Hénin-Beaumont (Pas-de-Calais), left for the campaign more than a year ago. Member of the outgoing management, she is supported by Julien Bayou. His motion not having obtained 50% of the votes on Saturday, negotiations will probably begin for mergers.
Among the challengers of Mme Tondelier, Sophie Bussière (18.07% of the vote), New-Aquitaine regional councilor, is supported by Yannick Jadot, and Mélissa Camara (13.54%), elected from Lille, by Sandrine Rousseau and part of the left wing of ‘EELV. The former regional candidate in Brittany, Claire Desmares-Poirrier (9.6%), defends the territories, federalism and decline. The head of elections, Hélène Hardy (6.59%), calls for turning the party more towards working-class neighborhoods, and Géraldine Boyer (4.34%), member of the executive office, claims a libertarian heritage.
Beyond the different sensitivities, there are among the candidates “a desire to build (…). What we have done at the city level, it is time to do it at the national level.underlined on France Inter Eric Piolle, the ecological mayor of Grenoble, and support of Marine Tondelier.
The candidates all have in common that they want “massive” the party, especially in the direction of rural areas and working-class neighborhoods. Most of them also want the “refound” by modifying its internal rules, often considered complex and not conducive to the conquest of power.
The question of the Europeans
But they differ on the position vis-à-vis the left alliance of the New People’s Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), and on their relationship to radicalism. Marine Tondelier like Sophie Bussière distance themselves from the Nupes, considering it necessary to work first on “a new great party of ecology”, and claim an autonomous list to the Europeans. But Sophie Bussière tries to stand out by criticizing the outgoing management – and therefore Marine Tondelier – who “has not kept his promises of party transformations”according to her.
Conversely, Mélissa Camara defends the Nupes, in which EELV must, she says, be “a driving force”. At the Europeans of 2024, she advocates not closing the door to a common list. Mme Camara, who carries the battles of “ecofeminism, anti-racism, anti-capitalism and intersectionality”defend “a form of radicalism, of rupture” and hopes that the party will regain its place in civil disobedience movements.
While also supporting a form of radicalism, Marine Tondelier denounces, ” the buzz “ et « la twitterisation » of political life, in a barely veiled tackle to Sandrine Rousseau.