The national secretary of Europe Ecologie – Les Verts, Julien Bayou, was the guest of France Info on Wednesday 27 April. Aware of the defeat of the ecologists after the presidential elections, the support of Yannick Jadot wanted to set the requirements of his party in the event of a union of the left for the legislative elections.
“We have to be lucid. We failed.” It is with humility that Julien Bayou evokes the defeat of Europe Ecologie – Les Verts in the presidential elections. At the microphone of France Info, the national secretary of EELV recognized the responsibility of his party at the end of the first round of the presidential elections: “It is a collective failure. We must not focus on the legislative elections if we have not learned the lessons of the presidential elections. True to his commitment, the EELV national secretary does not dissociate himself from his leader, Yannick Jadot: “He carried our humanist values. For all this, we thank him”, even if he regrets “that we did not know how to address the youth. Ecology was not audible.
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The senior executive of EELV deplores in particular the multiple criticisms of Sandrine Rousseau, a dismissed ex-member of the EELV campaign team, against Yannick Jadot: “She could have brought a complementary path to her program. “All this would therefore have caused, according to Julien Bayou, a problem of dynamics:” The environmental movement was organized at the end of the primary but in the countryside, it did not work. We did not resonate with the French.
On calls for donations, “we are approaching two million euros”
Following the environmental debacle at the end of the presidential elections, the EELV party is in debt to the tune of five million euros. Yannick Jadot then launched an appeal for donations to save the party. “We are now approaching two million euros, with more than 30,000 donors, that is to say twice as many as the number of EELV members” welcomes Julien Bayou. The national secretary of EELV, however, acknowledges having opened the kitty to collect donations ahead of the first round of the presidential elections: “I anticipated all the scenarios.”
With the approach of the legislative elections, Julien Bayou is campaigning for a “coalition” between the political forces of the left. “If it’s the same political bid, it will fail again. In order not to lose 5 more years, we need ecological and rebellious battalions. The support of Yannick Jadot, however, expresses his disagreements on certain measures proposed by the Popular Union: “We are in discussion, we will get to the bottom of things”, in particular on the question of price freezes, but also on nuclear and compliance with European treaties.
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If Jean-Luc Mélenchon reproduces the same strategy as in the presidential elections, it will be a failure.
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Julien Bayou nevertheless wishes to be clear about the political positioning of EELV vis-à-vis the other left-wing parties: “We are pro-European and pro-ecologists. We have convictions, take it or leave it. If we have to leave Europe and resume nuclear power, it will be without us!”
For the secretary general of EELV, “we must be able to finish this weekend or at the end of the week” the negotiations on the left with a view to an agreement for the legislative elections. “The last offer we are making” to LFI, “is around 15 to 20% out of 165 winnable constituencies,” he underlined. The party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon did not follow up on this proposal. “If Jean-Luc Mélenchon reproduces the same strategy as in the presidential elections, it will be a failure”, estimates Julien Bayou. “We must not confuse the presidential and the legislative elections.”