At the summer days of ecologists, which began Thursday August 25 in Grenoble, two rebels appear for a few minutes alongside the current national secretary of EELV Julien Bayou. MEP Manon Aubry, and MEP for the North Adrien Quatennens, who still praises the merits of the coalition: “The people who have met us challenge us, talk to us a lot about what we have done, about Nupes. They are extremely attached to it: for us, it is obvious that we are stronger together.”
Obviously for the artisans of the left-wing coalition… But not for everyone among the ecologists. Because even if party cadres sweep away any internal division around the subject, “it’s all just jargon“, estimates a member of the Greens who attends the scene. For him, even several months after the signature of the agreement, “all is not settled“. Many EELV executives thus consider that it is necessary to unite, to be strong enough against the rebels, who are gaining ground on the ecological question.
Plenary #NUPES of the #JDE2022 : one of the challenges of the new school year cited en masse by the speakers is the dialogue and the culture of compromise to be cultivated between left-wing forces and ecologists, between political parties, associative movements and trade unions. pic.twitter.com/aAqaPSNzKI
— Summer Days of Ecologists (@Journeesdete) August 25, 2022
This is confirmed when you ask Yannick Jadot if he feels Nupes: “Me, I am an environmentalist“. The former presidential candidate stands back from the coalition on the left: “The Nupes, today, is the national deputies. They have an inter-group, and that’s very good. Me, I was elected to the European Parliament, on an ecologist list, I belong to a political party. Long live the coalition, the inter-group Nupes in the National Assembly, that’s very good.”
Others want to be active within the Nupes, so as not to let the rebels take over, like the environmentalist MEP Benoît Biteau: “We are very good on the technical aspects, the expertise: we may need to change our relationship with social networks, look at the way of doing things at LFI to be more bankable with ordinary mortals.“
On the side of the militants, several speeches. For Peter, “the Insoumis are very much into denunciation, they can do it well, but they are less into the social project that we are presenting. I think that on this, in quotation marks, we are stronger, in any case we have been working for longer. We are in executives everywhere, in lots of cities, and we are working on it very concretely.“
Johanna, she considers that the coalition is a favorable ground for exchanging skills: “We have things to bring them, both on ecology and local democracy practices, on which we have been more aware for a long time, on the place of women in politics… They also have to bring us. We should be able to get something out of this competition.”
“They enter through the social door, we enter through the environmental door, it is quite natural that we meet in the middle.”
Jean-Baptiste, young elected ecologist from Bordeauxat franceinfo
Merging ecological ideas with those of rebellious France, instead of resisting… this is also what Jean-Baptiste, a young elected official from Bordeaux, prefers: “It’s all to their credit, I think they’re not doing it out of political calculation, they’re doing it because they really understood the urgency.”
Because the advantage of being in agreement, according to him, is that the discussions are more fluid in the Assembly. To continue printing the image of a solid left.
Ecologists, rebels, but also socialists and communists are finalizing their project this weekend to march together at the start of the school year to defend purchasing power.
The report by Victoria Koussa at the Summer Days of Ecologists
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