The Ecologists-EELV barely passed the 5% mark, with 5.5% of the votes, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior

The score of the list led by Marie Toussaint collapsed by around 8 points compared to that obtained in the last European elections in 2019.

They avoided the worst. Marie Toussaint’s list, supported by Les Ecologistes-EELV, obtained 5.5% of the votes in the European elections, Sunday June 9, according to the final results published by the Ministry of the Interior.

The environmentalists therefore arrive far behind the National Rally (31.37%), the presidential camp (14.6%) and the Socialist Party list (13.83%) but are reassured, while the polls flirted in recent weeks with the 5% threshold necessary to obtain seats in the European Parliament. A survey carried out by Ipsos for Radio France and The Parisian and published on June 6 thus gave the environmentalist list at 6%.

Who are the elected candidates and with whom will they sit?

According to the final results, environmentalists will send five elected officials to the European Parliament. Several candidates will regain their seats, such as the head of the list Marie Toussaint or the former national secretary of the party David Cormand. Yannick Jadot’s former campaign director, Mounir Satouri, 4th on the list, also regains his post as MEP, like farmer Benoît Biteau. New faces are also entering the chambers of Strasbourg and Brussels: the Lille elected official Mélissa Camara, close to Sandrine Rousseau and 3rd on the list, as well as the sociologist Majdouline Sbai (5th position).

French environmentalists will sit with their German, Belgian and Dutch environmentalist counterparts within the Greens/European Free Alliance group.

How did party members react?

“Faced with the war waged against ecology, we have held our ground, but we are going backwards, and we are clearly going backwards”, recognized the head of the Ecologists-EELV list, Marie Toussaint, on Sunday evening from her headquarters. “Our defeat is dry, it is bitter, it opens the door to all risks. I obviously take my responsibilities for the difficulties in this campaign”she added.

The MEP then attacked her rivals: “I had underestimated the strength of the lobbies and the cultural battle that is constantly being waged against us and the living. The lack of courage of the right, of the Macronists, and of the European socialists who happily made us take the blame policies that they had put in place.”

For her part, the boss of environmentalists, Marine Tondelier, denounced “a violent attack on ecology” on the set of France 2. “We talked a lot about 2027. Tonight’s results make me tremble”she assured.

“I am extremely angry with the government: with their strategy of creating a duel between them and the National Rally, they have shortchanged them”continued Marine Tondelier, adding that she was “anger against Emmanuel Macron”.

How did the environmentalists’ campaign go?

The campaign was difficult for environmentalists, who favored a single list rather than a gathering of the left. Launched with great fanfare in December 2023 with an air of “booty therapy”, Marie Toussaint’s campaign had difficulty printing. The outgoing MEP was quickly overtaken in the polls by her socialist competitor, Raphaël Glucksmann. A fine connoisseur of issues, sometimes too technical, the former community activist suffered from her lack of notoriety and from a campaign which generally focused little on environmental issues.

Proposer first of the “candy”, the Greens had to change strategy during the last months of the campaign, faced with the erosion of voting intentions in the polls. Threatened with disappearance in the European Parliament, Marie Toussaint’s supporters never stopped reminding “that there is no ecology without ecologists”as the party boss, Marine Tondelier, declared again, May 30 on franceinfo.

What will be the consequences after these results?

Marie Toussaint’s score is a relief for the executives of the environmentalist party. Two motions opposed to that of the movement’s boss, Marine Tondelier, filed a request for the organization of an extraordinary congress on May 23, without waiting for the verdict of the ballot boxes, reported Opinion.

The lackluster campaign has awakened internal tensions. Beyond the European elections, it is the strategy of the head of the Ecologists-EELV which risks being called into question, while several party executives would have preferred a single list on the left. The Greens are in any case weakened in the perspective of negotiations with La France insoumise and the Socialist Party for the 2027 presidential election.