This Saturday, June 11, the Relais Jeunes arrives in Paris. On foot or by bike, these young people committed to the climate and social justice toured France to raise awareness of their cause. Their adventure began on February 20. For more than three and a half months, they traveled the roads, met associations, researchers, farmers. Their last stop before the capital was Fontainebleau, about forty kilometers from Paris. A report by Léa Ramsamy.
Faces still asleep, sandwiches and coffee. The members of the Relais Jeunes share breakfast in the garden of the guest house which welcomes them in the middle of the forest.
Sasha de Laage, 24, is the founder of this project. He wanted to organize this march in response to the anxiety of young people for their future.
” I recall that the climate made 2.7% of airtime during the presidential election. It is quite simply a question, as the latest report from the IPCC and all the experts remind us, of the very viability of the Earth. Faced with this anxiety, we decided not to sit idly by and to get moving to talk to people who know, who are already doing things differently, to put these issues and this systemic crisis at the heart debates “, he launches.
A tour of France in contact with environmental actors
Lou Garcia is co-organizer of the Relais Jeunes. At 25, she finished her master’s degree in environmental policy. It was at the Paris Climate Academy that she met Sasha de Laage and the rest of the team. Convinced by the project, she commits to it.
” It’s a very enriching personal adventure because I finally got beyond the very theoretical side of my courses on ecology. I was finally going to meet people, be they farmers, associations, collectives in struggle. That’s when I realized how much we were really talking about very concrete life. »
Élisa Alameda is not yet fully awake. For this 22-year-old student, the Relais Jeunes showed how environmental issues concern all areas, including health.
” I had no idea that there were people who lived in these situations, where the cancer rate in their city is three times higher than the average, this is the case in Fos-sur-Mer by example because of all the industries around, explains the young woman. And I said to myself that in fact it might also be a strategy to adopt, rather than sticking to environmental issues. Health is something that really affects everyone and this aspect needed to be highlighted much more. »
A partisan but not apolitical initiative
In this election year, the Relais Jeunes is not affiliated with any party, but politics is at the center of the project, as Lou Garcia explains. ” This is where the nuance lies, to say that we are “partisan”, that we are not affiliated with a party, but we absolutely cannot say that we are apolitical because what we do is profoundly political since we are tackling social issues and we say that we want to make society differently. »
On the eve of the first round of the legislative elections, Sasha de Laage recalls that voting is important. ” We realized with this Youth Relay and this four-month experience around France how important the role of deputy is so that ecology, social justice, democracy are felt and really exercised everywhere. on the territory. »
The Relais Jeunes must arrive in Paris this Saturday at 3 p.m. The organizers will submit their manifesto to the Climate Academy.