The video went around the world. It shows French international footballer Kurt Zouma hitting his cat in his London home. The controversy quickly swelled across the Channel: nearly 200,000 people demanded legal action, his cats were taken away from him and Adidas broke its contract with him. The coach of the Blues Didier Deschamps denounced for his part “an act of unnamed cruelty”. In the middle of the presidential campaign, one voice became more pressing than the others, that of Hélène Thouy, candidate of the Animalist Party. “Kurt Zouma must be excluded from the France team. (…) He represents the values of France and the values of France is not to martyr a cat”, she claimed Thursday January 10 on Franceinfo. The one who will hold her first meeting on Saturday January 12 in Orléans does not mince her words. His electorate would not have forgiven him for such silence. Especially since this case shows once again – if need be – that animal abuse is less and less accepted by society. With virulent tweets, Hélène Thouy took advantage of this controversy to make a name for herself in public opinion. It must be said that the candidate starts from afar.
Last July, while the French were on vacation, the Animalist Party announced its desire to participate for the first time in the king of French political elections. A new electoral battle for this movement which claims some 4000 members. After an internal vote of the militants, the one who will drape herself in the candidate’s clothes is designated. Her name: Hélène Thouy. “We decided to enter the arena, so we needed the best of us,” recalls Douchka Markovic, co-founder of the party and currently Councilor of Paris. Among those who know her, this decision has nevertheless surprised. “At first, I didn’t understand what she was going to do in this mess. I still find her brave and cheeky to have started!”, Says Brigitte Gothière, president of the L214 association, including Hélène Thouy is one of the lawyers.
Despite a lack of notoriety, the candidate displays a surprising serenity. On television sets, she unfolds her argument without blinking and her speech does not lend itself to a smile. “She is very serious, very aware of the themes she defends,” blows a majority executive. “If we were able to pass laws on animal welfare during this five-year term, it is largely thanks to the Animalist Party and its score in the Europeans, adds LREM deputy Loïc Dombreval. We are not on a fanciful candidacy, their program defends respectable and measured positions”. And the past gives him hope for the future. Remember, during the 2017 legislative elections the party had posted posters with a cat and obtained 63,637 votes throughout the territory, or 1.10% of the votes cast in the 142 constituencies where it presented a candidate. Two years later at the Europeans, it is a dog who proudly sat on the electoral panels. And the canine does even better than the feline: 2.2% of the votes collected, almost as much as the Communist Party candidate, Ian Brossat (2.5%).
“Start-up of political parties”
After the cat and the dog, which totem will represent the training for the presidential election? “The secret is well kept”, we are assured in the entourage of Hélène Thouy. The candidate is optimistic. One Ifop poll published in November created a surprise: the candidate obtained 2% of the voting intentions, a score almost identical to that of… Anne Hidalgo. Since then, other surveys give it between 0.5% and 1.5%, when some do not even bother to test it. “The problem with the polls is that few people know my name if it is not backed by that of the Animalist Party, the candidate consoles herself. But I think we can make 4 to 5% if we participate in the first round” . Especially since she can count on brand support, such as Michel Drucker and Julien Courbet or Sylvie Rocard, the daughter of the former Prime Minister. Positions that encourage animal activists to think that a dynamic is being born. “The 21st century will be that of animals”, jubilant Emile, a 24-year-old law student, present at the launch of the campaign on October 10 in a room in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.
Vegetarian since she was 7 years old, the Girondine is no stranger to the animal cause. A lawyer for L214 since 2010, she is one of the seven founders of the Animalist Party. “In 2014, I was with the Greens and we were touching a glass ceiling on the animal issue, hence the urgency of creating a political organization on the Dutch model. It was in this context that I met for the first time Hélène Thouy. It was a small environment at the time”, recalls Douchka Markovic. The young woman quickly becomes an essential part of the mechanism, and turns into the face of the movement in front of the cameras. “We are a bit like the start-up of political parties because we work differently,” she continues. “This party is at a crossroads between association and political training, but there is a real strategy”, confirms political scientist Daniel Boy, director of research emeritus at the Center for Political Research at Sciences Po (Cevipof).
From its creation, the movement appears like a UFO. The seven founders are five women and two men. “Without women, we could not have created it”, confesses Douchka Markovic. Logical, therefore, that the first animalist candidate in history to run for the presidential election is female. In the 2017 legislative elections, the training was even financially sanctioned for… having presented too many candidates – 70%, against 30% of men. A loss of more than 37,000 euros per year in public aid, or 36% of its funding. A sanction that weighs on the campaign today. “We do not leave with the same weapons as the others”, regrets the candidate, who calls for donations. Another specificity: the Animalist Party wants to be cross-partisan “because animals are neither right nor left”. Hélène Thouy will therefore go “to the end” and will not ally with any other candidate. And for the second round? She will not give any voting instructions. “Our voters are free to vote for whoever they want, their votes do not belong to us”, justifies Douchka Markovic.
The quest for sponsorship
Still, at the time of writing, nothing assures Hélène Thouy of being able to participate in the first round. The quest for 500 sponsorships is a priesthood for all “small” candidates. According to the latest figures from the Constitutional Council published on February 10, the candidate had 56 signatures. She nevertheless assures in private that she has collected a little more than half of the sponsorship promises. “It’s a real way of the cross, confesses the lawyer. Many mayors do not want to sponsor a candidate, whoever he is. Most of the elected officials we meet understand our candidacy but do not go so far as to grant us their signature”. Budos, Pujos-sur-Ciron, Branens, Préchac, Coimères…
The candidate – who is leading this electoral campaign and her professional activity – spends her free time traveling the roads of her native Gironde in search of support. In all, more than 150 members took the roads of their region to meet the city councilors. But, in rural areas, it is not easy to convince. “Federations of hunters have contacted mayors to tell them not to sponsor us,” says Hélène Thouy. “A mayor, for example, asked us to come and explain our candidacy to him. When we arrived, there was a welcoming committee: hunters were demonstrating in front of the Town Hall. Finally, we discussed and we agreed on many points,” she recalls. Thierry Costes, political adviser to the National Federation of Hunters, assures that they “do not provide any instructions to local elected officials”. “It’s always easy to accuse others when you can’t collect 500 signatures.”
It must be said that the issue of hunting is divisive in our society. “It’s always caricatural to oppose hunting and animal welfare. It’s a posture to exist in the political debate. Hunters love animals, they adore their dogs. It’s the wrong priority”, reacts Thierry Costs. “We are opposed to practices, and not to men, replies Hélène Thouy. We are in fact advocating measures which are already consensus: the end of court hunting or bullfighting”. The hunter, however, would not be surprised by a relatively high score next April.
But who are these animalist voters that we don’t know – or would like – to see? According to one investigation conducted in 2019 by Jérôme Fourquet for the Jean Jaurès Foundation, animalists achieve their best scores in deprived areas, marked by industrial shipwrecks and where the National Rally traditionally scores well. “This does not mean that there are ideological relations between the two parties. But there is competition. In my opinion, this means that the animalist vote is, in part, a protest vote. I caricature, but the idea behind could be: ‘Men don’t understand me, politicians are all rotten, so I vote for animals'”, comments Daniel Boy.
Officially, Hélène Thouy hopes to make between 2 and 3% next April. But, for Loïc Dombreval, she has already won a battle: “all the candidates, including Emmanuel Macron, will not be able to ignore the animal question in their program” under penalty of being discredited”.