Environmentalists on Monday designated MEP Marie Toussaint as head of the list for the 2024 European elections, following an internal vote by activists, effectively endorsing the principle of an autonomous list. The 36-year-old MEP, who distinguished herself by initiating with several NGOs “The Case of the Century”, a legal action against France’s climate inaction, won 59.5% of the votes (out of 4,678 voters). ), ahead of David Cormand who will be number two on the list, announced the national secretary of EELV Marine Tondelier, during a press conference.
A new movement in October
A less sensitive but highly symbolic subject, the activists of Europe Ecologie-Les Verts also endorsed the launch of a new movement, in October, which will be called “The Ecologists” and should eventually replace EELV. A promise from the boss of the party, as part of a refoundation which must be completed in October.
While La France insoumise continues to try to convince its partners in the Nupes coalition of the need for a common list for European women, Marine Tondelier has already repeatedly rejected this hypothesis.
The members of the party up to date with their contributions – 11,106 at the last count – were invited to vote online from Friday to Monday morning, to validate or not this strategy of an independent list but with the possibility of inserting personalities of opening to autumn. They voted for 86%. They also approved the ordering of eight men and eight women for the future list, adopted by the Federal Council.
Marie Toussaint promises that environmentalists would fight “for a Europe of the living and a Europe of justice”
After the announcement of the results, Marie Toussaint, moved, promised that ecologists would fight “for a Europe of the living and a Europe of justice”. “The mother of battles is to re-embed the economy within planetary boundaries,” she told reporters. “I intend to get the highest possible score with my teeth (…) The campaign will be difficult, perhaps even violent”.
She also promised to “fight the far right head-on” and affirmed that there was no question of making I don’t know what regulatory environmental pause”, in response to remarks by the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, of which she denounced the “greenwashing”.Finally, “we must refuse the war of the left (…) We can diverge without tearing ourselves apart”, she said, in an address to LFI.
EELV, which aims to achieve a better score than in 2019 (13.5%) in Europeans, wants to wear its colors alone to broaden its base, but defends a common candidacy of the left for the presidential election of 2027.
“Notable differences” with LFI
For Alain Coulombel, member of the executive office, “the only small difference” between Marie Toussaint and David Cormand was “their relationship to Nupes. Marie Toussaint is a little closer to Nupes, less critical” than David Cormand, who does not not hide its reluctance vis-à-vis this alliance with LFI, the PS and the PCF.
Marie Toussaint admits to AFP that she was “out of line + the debate is impossible and we will never go together + to the Europeans”. But she admits that the conditions for a union, in particular with LFI, are not met, with “significant differences, in particular on European defense or Ukraine”.
EELV is not the first party to decide to go it alone. The PCF has already designated its head of list a week ago, Léon Deffontaines, close to the boss of the communists Fabien Roussel. La France insoumise, which has just announced that 95% of its militants have voted for a union list, will nevertheless continue its efforts of persuasion by June 2024.
“We continue to want to convince on a single list, quite simply so that on the evening of the Europeans, we can say that the Nupes is the first political force in the country”, ahead of the RN and the macronists, declared Mathilde Panot on BFMTV Sunday. The latest polls give higher scores for the left if each party in the coalition presented a separate list, rather than with a single list.