Support that we didn’t see coming, an unexpected guest from “civil society”, a new proposal in the speech… It’s a fact, the “surprises”, always announced by political parties before meetings, are often disappointing. But we must recognize that, this Saturday evening, at the Élysée Montmartre, the environmentalists set the bar very high. “Let your butt fly!”, three dancers, specialized in “booty therapy”, shout on stage. Magic does the rest: the entire party staff, from Yannick Jadot to Sandrine Rousseau, waddles around realizing “the chicken position”. A little confusing, a little lunar. In the room, a few eyebrows are raised. “I have a hard time knowing what I think about it. In the middle of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?” asks an executive.
Time to recover, Marie Toussaint arrives on stage. At the desk, in front of a French and European flag, the head of the list warns that the 2024 campaign will be more difficult than that of 2019. At the time, Yannick Jadot was the surprise of the election by rising to third place (13.48%). “We took advantage of a favorable political and social context for political ecology,” she recalls, referring in particular to the “climate marches” which were held in the weeks before the vote. “We campaigned with the wind at our backs. This time, we will campaign with the wind in our face,” announces Marie Toussaint, judging that the adversaries of political ecology have multiplied in recent years.
“We must seek out each vote as if it were the last day of our fight, and start again each morning as if it were the first morning of the world,” demands Marie Toussaint. To convince, the head of the list does not want to play the “muscle-showing bully” but on the contrary lead a campaign advocating “gentleness”. “I say again here that gentleness is political, because it refuses to let force make the law,” she proclaims.
The head of the list does not hesitate to wink at right-wing voters. “Refuse to let yourself be drawn into the anti-climate crusade of the right and the far right,” she asks them. “You will criticize me for speaking to the right. I’m not naive. But I believe in the power of ecology: a day will come when we will have conquered the minds of the last of the Mohicans of liberalism,” she assures.
The ecologist also warns that we should not count on her to participate “in the war of the left”. “But that doesn’t stop us from speaking frankly,” she emphasizes, before calling out Raphaël Glucksmann, the very likely future head of the socialist list. “Raphaël, if you hear me, can you ask Carole Delga to stop supporting the A 69? It is not compatible with ecology, not compatible with the fight against climate change, not compatible with the pulsations of life.” On the left, the European election campaign is well underway.
