NGO members of the Climate Action Network have analyzed and ranked French political parties according to their votes on climate issues, in anticipation of the European elections which will take place on June 9.
The Climate Action Network, which includes several NGOs, analyzed the votes of French political parties regarding European ecological legislation on the Green Deal. The positions of the 81 French MEPs were thus listed and then classified into three categories: the “driving” parties, the “weathervanes”, and the “blocking” parties.
According to this ranking, the leading parties are the Socialist Party, Place Publique, the Ecologist Party and France Insoumise. The “weathervanes” are the parties of the presidential majority, Renaissance and Modem Horizon. They “sometimes voted in the right direction, sometimes in the opposite direction”, explains Anne Bringault, program director of the Climate Action Network, during a press conference in Paris co-organized with the Bird Protection League (LPO) , Reclaim Finance, France Nature Environnement (FNE) and the CLER-Réseau for the energy transition. Finally, the blocking parties are the Republicans, Reconquest and the National Rally.
“Setbacks” if the far right wins in June
The NGOs also considered that European legislation was “one of the most ambitious in the world”. They welcomed progress, despite demands which tend to polarize. “We have seen certain regulations or certain directives on the climate and the environment voted by a few votes (…) the balance of power within the future parliament is really key,” believes Anne Bringault. According to her, if the far right wins in the European elections in June, the EU’s climate ambitions could set back. “If the far right, for example, gets a lot of candidates, deputies, in the European Parliament, then the protection of the climate and the environment will really be called into play, there will be setbacks,” she defends.