The national leader of EELV, Julien Bayou. – GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP
Attacked for a campaign visual targeting the “boomers”, the environmental candidate Julien Bayou admitted on Sunday an “error”. Friday, Julien Bayou, candidate for the presidency of the Île-de-France region and also head of EELV, unveiled in a tweet a series of visuals declining the examples of supposed opponents of ecology to encourage his own supporters to go vote. One of the images, which has since been removed, featured smiling elderly people and the slogan: “Boomers are planning to vote.”
“The ‘boomers’ visual was awkward and hurtful. We immediately removed it. I had not validated it but I take responsibility for it ”, declared Julien Bayou in a press release, intended to be disseminated then on social networks. He adds: “This error makes me all the more angry as (…) my conception of ecology is to bring together all forces and generations”. According to him, “ecology would not be there without the heroes and heroines of the generations who took before everyone else, and often under mockery, the pilgrim’s staff”.
A highly criticized visual
He was questioned about the many criticisms of this campaign posted on social networks and of certain political figures such as the president of Modem François Bayrou, an ally of Emmanuel Macron. “This campaign says:” We do not look at people as citizens, we look at them as belonging to a category, a community “, and that it is the category and the community that vote,” denounced François Bayrou on BFMTV Sunday.
On the left, the socialist Audrey Pulvar, competitor of Julien Bayou for the presidency of the IDF region, said on BFMTV “surprise that a category of population is designated” via this campaign. “I don’t know a single grandparent boomer who does not care about the fate of future generations, ”she tackled.
The former EELV deputy and LFI candidate for the 2019 Europeans, Sergio Coronado, on the contrary justified the campaign: “‘Ok Boomer!’ can be summed up as: “Your generation has experienced full employment, they have consumed limitlessly, have not taken care of the planet and you still want to tell us what we need to do? You failed. Let us handle it. now” “. Other support, Eva Joly, candidate of the Greens for the presidential election of 2012: “Time does not matter to the case, boomer it’s less a question of age than a state of mind, ”she tweeted.