Without even caricaturing too much, here is the composite portrait of an EELV voter: a rather wealthy, urban and qualified asset. The Green vote remains particularly weak outside the big cities, the results of the June 2022 legislative elections illustrate this quite clearly: out of 23 deputies from the environmental group, only three come from rural constituencies.
The situation is harsh for the ecologists: in the countryside, the National Rally often wins the day. EELV remains a party of city dwellers.
The question was at the heart of round tables during the Greens’ summer days at the end of August. HASNo miracle solution exists, especially since the subject is debated even among environmentalists. VSsome prefer a very radical approach, to galvanize the militants: to impose the debate, it is the strategy of Sandrine Rousseau, which launches approximately a national polemic per week. Others theorize strategies that still remain inaudible in the countryside: talking about the protection of nature, relocations, the return of rail or public services, today, that does not work.
The fault is probably environmental representatives who are rarely from the countryside: difficult for voters to identify with them. Ihere is a communication that is still too divisive: “Talking about decline, it flatters the convinced but you lose the working classes”, deplores an important EELV executive. EInternally, some elected officials warn of the sometimes idealized vision of rurality on the part of ecologists. The discourse on hunting, too, cuts the Greens off from part of the population.
In fact, the behind-the-scenes debate among the Greens is quite simple: the French have increasingly awareness of the climate emergency. LShould ecologists soften their narrative to accompany them or stay at the radical avant-garde even if it means losing the less aware French people?
Nobody can decide for the moment, but it is in part this debate which will be at the heart of the next Greens congress next December.