Eric Piolle remains straight in his boots. The precursor of municipal ecology in Grenoble, a city in the grip of drug trafficking and violence, does not intend to operate “security turn” unlike its ecological counterparts. What to encourage Marine Tondelier, her former campaign director at the last presidential primary of the Greens, to break with the interested party? “I think that it is necessary to capitalize on the experience, which the Greens do not know how to do, he said to L’Express. I will soon be a former elected official [NDLR : il ne se représentera pas en 2026]a rare species in ecologists since these profiles have almost all left the party … “
L’Express: Grenoble is at the heart of the news with repetitive cases and acts of violence. Can a mayor fight against this scourge? By returning the ball to Bruno Retailleau, you seem to answer in the negative.
Eric Piolle : The law gives these sovereign missions to the State. Municipalities are part of the safety continuum, on both sides of the criminal chain. The town halls, like Grenoble, are therefore actresses with this continuum, whose councilors often experience the limits. In reality, the State hides the means it implements, the number of national police officers it deploys in each area, for example, giving the unpleasant feeling of putting cities that demand more workforce in competition.
Beauvau thinks that I am a lax because I do not install new surveillance cameras, when there are already six per kilometer-carré … Well, I also think that Bruno Retailleau is lax, because he is all repressive in the verb, but in acts does not give the means of the fight against drug trafficking. When he went to Grenoble ten days ago [NDLR : après l’attaque à la grenade d’un bar de la ville]he announced the arrival of 16 new national police officers. Thereafter, we learned that 13 of them were allocated to the hunt for immigrants. The national strategy has been a failure for years. In terms of public health, it is a failure because there is no prevention. In terms of security, it is a failure since we concentrate the essential of our means in the fight against drug trafficking without consumption or sales decreasing. And then it is a failure in terms of reintegration, since recurrence remains enormous. The interior ministers receive the sea with a spoon, and use their post as a political springboard.
Faced with drug trafficking, mayors are not helpless because we are competent in terms of public tranquility. As the first curtain, we have information at any time, our agents are on the ground, dialogue with the populations, carry out prevention actions. In Grenoble, we observe a human exploitation at the bottom of the deal of the deal with young people increasingly shattered, people who come out of weapons at any time of the day, against the backdrop of settling of accounts between rival bands. The evolution is disturbing, for me, for the population, and it extends geographically into a multitude of small and medium -sized cities. I think that the supervised legalization of cannabis is a solution to destabilize these globalized companies, which concentrate a large part of their turnover on this drug. This is a question on which the experience of power made me change my mind. You have to be able to open this debate.
Some of your environmental counterparts have also changed their minds during the mandate and operated, faced with insecurity, some turns. Pierre HURMIC, in Bordeaux, claimed it, by partially arming its municipal police. Grégory Doucet, Lyon’s councilor, wants to install dozens of surveillance cameras. Would you say that the real has right-wing them?
The armament of the municipal police is not a public policy, it is an employer decision, for the security of his agents. I studied this question regularly, I spent a year to discuss with the municipal police, the experts of the question. My conclusion is always the same: electric pulse pistol, tear bomb, telescopic stick, pedestrian camera are the right equipment for their missions. On the issue of video surveillance cameras, we have also added it to public space! But I look at scientific studies and I don’t feel like it is very effective. It is quite confusing to see that everyone frees himself from science in terms of security, while listening for the climate, energy … These measures also allow the councilors to get out of a trap, and to avoid being at the heart of the media storm while the municipal campaign is fast approaching.
Eric Piolle
The green wave seems far away. Can environmentalists keep their metropolises and conquer new ones in 2026?
As early as 2014, I assured that the ecologists had to abandon their status as eternal whistleblowers by proposing a concrete project based on political ecology. This is what we did in Grenoble. I visited Pierre Hurmic in 2016 in Bordeaux, told him that they could win the city. I also did it in Strasbourg, Marseille, Poitiers or Tours before the municipal elections of 2020. Ecologists now govern a third of the first 20 cities in France.
Today we have the impression of being at low tide, but I think we can keep our big cities, and win others of medium size. Between 2014 and 2020 in Grenoble, despite the covid, we have largely improved our electoral base, speaking of daily life, housing, transport, food … This is all that leads people to political ecology.
Do you not fear that Grenoble, marked by the news, will be agitated in a scarecrow of the standard management of an green city?
No. We are still among metropolises at the lowest unemployment rate, always first on the fundraising of start-ups, we are always an industrial city … Municipal campaigns, in any case, are really the meeting between a mayor, his team and the population. The other day, I sent to my ecological counterparts all the articles that were not very brilliant that was taken in the figure on the eve of the 2020 campaign. It was less systemic since we were the only ones; This time, it’s more visible. But I don’t think our electorate spends his day watching CNews.
The “Bayou affair” continues to shake your party, while complaints against the former boss of the Greens were classified without follow -up – the public prosecutor imputing no offense in Bayou. However, management is reluctant to say that Julien Bayou is innocent …
Justice has made a verdict, which is added to the external investigation launched by the Ecologists: Julien Bayou is innocent of the accusations of moral harassment and abuse of weakness issued against him. We must be able to say things, which does not prevent recognizing the suffering of the parties in this affair, as often in separations of couples. When we are at the forefront of feminist fighting, as our party is, we sometimes deal with subjects badly: in this case, we must admit that we condemned someone a little too quickly. We made a mistake that had major consequences on the interested party. The question of psychological violence, the fruit of patriarchy, is systemic in our society. But a special case cannot be erected as an illustration of the system.
Ecologists will renew the entirety of their bodies at the next congress in mid-2025. Should the party leader change on this occasion?
I always support Marine Tondelier for the National Secretariat [NDLR : la présidence du parti]. No confusion on it!
Éric Piolle
There is, on the other hand, a “confusion” around your appointment to the party spokesperson. You accuse Marine Tondelier of preventing you from being a candidate for this position – some suspect her of having done the same with Senator Mélanie Vogel. Is the Greens’ owner locking the party?
We have a marine divergence and me: she thinks that we must continue, as usual, to have unknown spokespersons. I think you have to capitalize on experience, which the Greens cannot do. If she has other arguments, let her advance them! I will soon be a former great elected official, a rare species among ecologists since these profiles, with the exception of former Minister Dominique Voynet returned seven years later, have almost all left the party … The national secretary tries to stifle the debate, seeking to secure what she thinks is the right strategy. I make this difference in view live, and remains a candidate for this position. Of course, the Ecologists are structured, they must let go of their individual trumpet, and I worked a lot for that internally. But locking the party is not in the state of mind of ecological activists.
Some ecologists deplore the role of referee of the new Popular Front that Marine Tondelier assumed, to the detriment of the expression of a clear political line. Is it also your opinion?
It is thanks to the work of Marine, his sincerity and his franchise that the NFP was able to build so quickly. You have to rejoice, as much as its media dynamics, and this is one of the reasons why it has a strong credit, internally or outside the party. But we live in a period, in France, in Europe and in the world, where political ecology and environmental issues are cornected in public debate. We are at low tide, and we must find the means so that our speech is more audible in society. But as said in the previous response, the Ecologists will gain audience-and that is why I am a candidate for party spokespersons-by expanding a team. My mantra during the 2014 municipal elections was “a mayor, a team”, it must be the same in this case. Our party is made up of experts, people who have things to say on various questions: Charles Fournier in industry, Benoît Biteau or Marie Pochon on agriculture and the rural world, Marie-Charlotte Garin on feminist questions … This transition to an audible, coherent and collective word is possible, provided that the soloist surrounds an orchestra.
The prospect of a single left candidacy seems to be moving away, Jean-Luc Mélenchon said that the rebellious people will present a candidate for the next presidential election. Will Ecologists have to have to choose between the PS and LFI? Can they carry the torch of the left in 2027?
We can, but that is not a condition. There is no point in tapping Jean-Luc Mélenchon because if it weren’t there we would have the same strategic difficulties in the face of Holland, Cazeneuve and others risk. We are currently working on a joint candidacy, wider than that of environmentalists. In 2027, the adventure will be collective, and we will determine a method to propel our candidate, or candidate. Who knows, perhaps the rebellious France will join this dynamic. Both nobody will be our natural candidate, and at the same time exist the basics to create a collective that will make you want, which requires an essential articulation with civil society.
And you, in all of this?
When I embarked on the race in 2022, I thought I was one of the few to have the specificity of being able to unite, from France rebellious to half of the Socialist Party. It was the meaning of my candidacy for the environmental primary, but I was beaten by Sandrine Rousseau in somewhat special circumstances. Today, I no longer think I am carrying this specificity. You have to continue to cultivate this common spirit and that’s what I reach.
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