Welcome to Tours, for this kick-off of the 40th Summer Days of the Ecologists. At the entrance, don’t forget to remove your tote bag – you will find there in particular your essential lunch boxes and cutlery – as well as the local currency created for the occasion, very useful, it too, to be able to quench your thirst under the Touraine heat. On site, elevate yourself intellectually, by attending numerous round tables under the tents set up around Balzac Island. Do not hesitate to chat with these dozens of elected officials, and other strategists of the sunflower party, often seated at a table to talk poloche between friends.
Also, do not hesitate to request a selfie with some prominent figures, such as actress Judith Godrèche, who has recently become a leading figure in the fight against sexist and sexual violence. It must be said that the guests are more consensual this year: the very controversial invitation of rapper Médine last year will have served as a lesson – in fact, pop classics were preferred to more offensive rap tracks as the soundtrack for the day. One last clarification, and not the least: if you feel the urge to go, hold your nose and head to the dry toilets at the back of the park.
The family snapshot
The weather is good, the sky is blue, Marine Tondelier is walking on water and the environmental activists look happy. Green jacket as a standard, here she is arriving in the middle of the morning, surrounded by the environmental elected officials, and escorted by a swarm of journalists. The photographers are rushing to immortalize the family photo; security orders them to take a few steps back.
“We look better from afar,” quips the National Secretary of the Greens, in a quip that is her signature. And it’s true that, from afar, the Greens have a certain allure. After consolidating their group in the Senate, the Greens took advantage of the recent legislative elections to increase the number of their deputies from 21 to 38. The result, she wants to believe, of the “hyphen” position that the political party maintained during the negotiations of the New Popular Front. “We did it on the sidewalk, in front of our headquarters!”, she recalls, in reference to the sealing of the agreement, rue des Petits-Hôtels, in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.
So allow him, in his opening speech, to list a handful of other victories. “We have recorded a fairly interesting number of memberships: there are 15,018, the highest level since 2009 [NDLR : ils étaient 15 000 cette année-là]and we have garnered 200,000 supporters!”
A little bit far from the million promised during the party’s general assembly. And the Green boss gets excited: “We are the French people’s favorite party!”, in reference to the recent Odoxa poll for The Figaro. All is well in the land of the Greens. In the audience, some opposition leaders are getting annoyed. “If the New Popular Front explodes tomorrow and there is a dissolution, if we go solo, we will no longer have any Green MPs,” dramatizes a big shot from the left wing. A Green strategist smiles: “We are not miraculous. Especially miracle workers.”
The miracle in question: erasing bad memories. At the lectern, Thursday, August 22, Marine Tondelier evokes the “humiliation” of the President of the Republic during the European elections (Valérie Hayer, Macronist candidate, had obtained nearly 15% of the votes). She nevertheless dodges the subject of her own party’s campaign – repeating soberly that it had been conducted “in the face of the wind” – prey to its worst score in 30 years. Then, the dissolution. The internal opposition, which, at the time, brandished a threat of a congress against the National Secretary, is forced to put away its knives. Indefinitely. “They made us forget their failure because the European question lasted 30 minutes, Macron was his best ally”, sneers a member of the green movement. So understand that, on Tondelier’s side, the time to take stock of the European elections is not for now.
“Don’t let too much time pass for the assessment”
And yet… Some members were surprised the day before to see the contact details of a member of Marie Toussaint’s campaign team displayed on their phone. A visual, bearing the candidate’s portrait and the words “European aperitif, a look back at a fight that is not over”, sets the tone for this Friday afternoon. However, the meeting was not included in the official programme. “We must not leave too much time to take stock,” says Marie Toussaint. “It is clear that I have not managed to make myself heard. We need to take this time to reflect, to take up the pilgrim’s staff and get back to work. We arrive here determined to get Lucie Castets into Matignon, but that cannot spare us from doing some in-depth work on the situation in which political ecology finds itself.”
Some took her at her word. It is customary, during the Summer Days, to see party officials hand out leaflets from their various factions. This Thursday, however, some insiders thought they were seeing the birth of a new faction within the Ecologists. In internal loops within the party, a text is circulating, entitled “What prospects for political ecology?”, written by “the new motion ‘Make ecology win'” and signed, among others, by MPs Jérémie Iordanoff, Lisa Bellucco and Eva Sas, and by Senator Guy Benarroche.
“Let’s be clear: we don’t seem up to the task. The objective displayed by our political family sometimes seems less about winning power than about defending our issues in public debate,” the signatories say, urging the party to “break with a movement-based form.” No date for the congress has yet been set, but some are already preparing. A party sleuth warns: “Honestly, with the weight she’s gained, I don’t know who will want to take on Tondelier.”
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