Marine Tondelier listened to the conclusion of the Ecological Planning Council, delivered Monday by Emmanuel Macron. The opinion of the national secretary of Europe Écologie-Les Verts has not changed one iota. On the substance of the speech, “still as productive and deeply dated”. Also on the form “with a president who plays the world champion of ecology in a total absence of humility, even though his total inaction in the matter is part of a dangerous climate denial.”
Former minister and environmentalist MP, Delphine Batho sees above all in this high mass on Monday, “an attempted takeover bid on ecology, in the face of the weakness of French political ecology…” But the affair is “vain”. “The old vision of the Head of State,” she said, “suggests that we will be able to continue living as before. He still has not understood that the climate shock and the collapse of biodiversity add up and cause a shift.”
“In view of Emmanuel Macron’s statements on Sunday, in any case, there was nothing to expect.” European MP, former national secretary of EELV and environmentalist figure, David Cormand is just as terse. “We love the car, and I love it.” These words from Macron in particular, spoken during the interview on Sunday evening, raised the hearts of environmentalists and rather badly started the reception of his speech on Monday. Even if “support” was proposed by the Head of State in order to “push our households to give up old diesels and old thermal vehicles” to move towards “hybrid” and “increasingly ‘electric’, his casualness was shocking. As had shocked a few days earlier, his declaration of love to planes. For Cormand, “Macron wants to go green without changing anything. By way of French ecology, it delivers an outdated, if not old-fashioned, message, which takes us back to Pompidou: I like cars and nuclear power will solve everything.”
Just re-elected on Sunday, Guillaume Gontard, environmentalist senator from Isère, is no less upset. “The time for big announcements to make is over. We all know what actions need to be taken!” “The “Grenelle” mentioned 500,000 homes to be renovated, recalls Senator EELV. This year we renovated 20,000!” “He talks to us about coal as if there was some kind of announcement, but it’s just a time lag,” the elected official gets annoyed. The bitterness applies to all sectors, including agriculture and food. “We continue to pursue a pattern from the 1950s,” he also said, “that of the FNSEA, which is deadly for the farmers themselves.” Anxious not to further damage his relations with a profession in difficulty and in tension with his political formation, the ecologist slips that “the farmer, it’s not his fault. He does what he was asked to do! It is those responsible for public policies who are taking it in this direction.” However, changing direction, says Gontard, “requires vision and courage”. Not really the qualities that environmentalists recognize in Emmanuel Macron. “The president is not up to contemporary challenges.”
Former environmentalist presidential candidate and just elected to the Senate, Yannick Jadot expressed regret Monday morning on Franceinfo that the head of state was inactive in the face of a France “at a standstill, paralyzed by its future and tempted to retreat into one’s past. Before scathing him: “French-style ecology is France condemned by Europe.”