It’s not really his fault, but since Europe Ecologie – Les Verts (EELV) began its transformation process in the spring, everything always comes at the wrong time. The launch of the Estates General of Ecology took place anonymously during the conflict over pensions. The launch of the “Les Ecologists” movement, Saturday, in Pantin (Seine-Saint-Denis), takes place in a dramatic and anxiety-provoking global and national context.
Marine Tondelier, still the national secretary of EELV, of course began her speech with a long development on the Arras attack and the situation in the Middle East. “Launching a new movement, was this the right time,” she asked. The reality is that the world has never needed politics more. Never has the world needed so much exchange. And above all, in this troubled time, what better idea than coming together to face it, together. »
So, this Saturday, environmentalists got into politics. But be careful, not the old way, renewed politics, “movement” style, of course. Their promise for forty years. “It’s not just a change of name, it’s a change of dimension”, to use the words of Guillaume Gontard, the boss of green senators. An essential change to move “towards the time of victories”, called for by David Cormand, MEP, one of the gray eminences of the party.
Concretely, the “movement”, alongside the party, must be a sort of natural point of contact for all the country’s ecologists, convinced or recent converts. If we want to participate in the votes in the party, then we will have to join. A sort of airlock to bring in more people (the famous million supporters announced by Marine Tondelier upon her arrival at the head of the party) in a party not known for being super welcoming.
“We still have efforts to make”
This mainly involves a new mobile app “Ecolo!” », tool for political activists but also for everyday ecology. This is a bit reminiscent of the app developed by France insoumise before 2022, “Action populaire”. “Yes, it’s a bit like that, but better,” say those around Marine Tondelier. Bold when you know that this app was developed for months and months. If “Popular Action” was a success for LFI, the Socialist Party and the UMP, in their time, launched their social networks, which quickly declined.
The EELV management claims at least 1,000 people were present at the launch of the movement. “It’s really not bad for us, especially outside the electoral campaign,” assures the party leader’s entourage. But Marine Tondelier has been repeating for months “come as you are”, to attract as many people as possible, we must note that on Saturday, the ecologists mainly found themselves among regulars. With speeches that are all the most classic for an eco-friendly party.
“We still have efforts to make,” recognizes Cyrielle Châtelain, president of the green group in the National Assembly. Although the event was based in Seine-Saint-Denis, still largely a mission area for “the first part of the city centers”, it took place in the fertile city of Pantin, a mecca of sociability for what we can undoubtedly consider it as “the ecological class” (at EELV, they only have this formula on their lips) of eastern Paris.
Let the greens be less focused on the party and more on the outside
Also, the transformation of the party as such is barely underway. If the “EELV” brand will gradually disappear in the coming months, in the back room, nothing is won. Main problem of EELV, and of the Greens before: the great complexity of the statutes. With the consequence that, in the militant time of the ecologists, the part devoted to the internal is enormous. Reform must take the party outwards. “Les Ecologists combines openness and flexibility without freeing itself from organizational and democratic rules,” assures Marine Tondelier. His internal opponents are a little more suspicious of his intentions. “They will create regional baronies, impose the majority in our internal votes”, we hear here and there.
“All week we were told that the road map (which frames future discussions on party reform) would not be adopted, because all the other motions more or less called for a vote against it, and it was largely approved by activists, more than 80%. This means that even their activists want things to move,” they say in Marine Tondelier’s entourage, where the imminent end of the “motions” operation, omnipresent in the current functioning of the party, is considered almost established. Until February, the activists of Europe Ecology – The Greens will still have plenty of time to focus on themselves in quarrels that are sometimes byzantine seen from afar. The only question is: is this the last time?