in towing in Parisian social housing, Yannick Jadot’s supporters are struggling to convince

Arms laden with leaflets bearing the image of Yannick Jadot, Françoise entrusts her stacks of leaflets to young EELV activists. It’s 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 30: it’s time for mobilization, just ten days before the first round of the presidential election. A dozen people came to participate in a door-to-door operation in social housing in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. “There are eight buildings, with between six and nine floors each, and we have 800 leaflets to distribute”, summarizes Françoise. Elections, this sparkling sexagenarian has seen it pass, but this one “is difficult”, does she recognize. “There is a cacophony on all sides and then, this is the first green campaign for a long time, there is a run-in.”

In the polls, the candidate Jadot only appears in sixth position, oscillating between 3 and 8%, far behind Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Far, too, from the ambitions of the Greens, who aspired to become the first force on the left. But not enough to discourage Corentin and his young comrades. At 24, this former socialist motivates the troops before going into the field and gives some advice.

“We talk to them about the program. If they answer us ‘useful vote’, we tell them that you have to vote out of conviction and that the polls do not predict the result.”

Corentin, support of Yannick Jadot

at franceinfo

The militants separate and attack the floors in teams of two or three. Corentin teams up with Fabien, a computer engineer, and Lena, a young student, both novices in this door-to-door exercise. “I had done the Benoît Hamon campaign, I hope we will do better in terms of the score”sighs Corentin in the elevator. “I’m not saying that we are going to make 20% but there may be good surprises”wants to believe the activist, inserted in Génération.s, the party created by the former socialist candidate for the 2017 presidential election.

Good surprises, there won’t be any at the first doors of the 9th floor: the first four bells ring in the void. When a door finally opens, we guess a large mustache in the crack. “Yes, you bother me a little”. The man still accepts a leaflet before closing his door pronto.

Luck smiles on the activists in front of apartment 212. Tuco, a 19-year-old business student, agrees to talk. Corentin unfolds the program of the environmental candidate by insisting on the theme of social justice. “Do you know that Yannick Jadot wants to increase the amount of the energy check?” A few minutes earlier, he had launched to the militants: “Talk about the great housing insulation plan, it’s a top measure, given the location!”

Tuco nods politely in the face of the arguments presented to him. The young man “does not feel represented” and thinks of voting white. When asked about ecology, the student admits that “it’s the future” and “he’s interested”. So why not vote for Yannick Jadot? Tuco barely identifies the former Greenpeace campaigns director. “I saw it this morning on TV and I had seen it before,” he concedes. The green candidate campaigned in relative indifference, starting with a notoriety handicap. “Mélenchon stands out a lot, he has good marketing”slips Tuco closing his door.

Two floors below, it is their internal dissensions that these green activists will have to justify. By opening her door to them, Agnès, a retired woman who does not have her tongue in her pocket, attacks Sandrine Rousseau directly. The finalist in the green primary, who defended a radical ecology, never really digested her defeat. She was dismissed from the campaign team in early March after very critical remarks towards Yannick Jadot. Despite this eviction, Agnès only has the word Sandrine Rousseau in the mouth, a woman “anti-men”.

“[Sandrine] Rousseau, it’s not possible. She damaged [Yannick] Jadot. She’s scary, she’s an extremist.”

Agnes, retired

at franceinfo

“But it’s Yannick Jadot who won in the end! It’s his program that we will apply, not that of Sandrine Rousseau”, tries to answer Corentin. The argument is barely heard. “Can we still have a Christmas tree with Yannick Jadot?”, continues Agnès, in reference to the decision of the mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, to banish the traditional Christmas tree in front of the town hall. Corentin reassures her. But at 62, Agnès “almost doesn’t want to vote anymore”.

“A lot of people say to themselves: what will change in my life?” It still puts forward two criteria: social and security. “We have thugs here at 3 in the morning”she whispers. “And Jadot, he doesn’t talk too much about it, about security.” Corentin praises the recruitments that his candidate wants to make in the police and justice. A waste of time, Agnès already has another choice in mind: “Maybe Marine Le Pen”.

On the second floor, Bruno is a loyal voter of the far-right candidate. Wrapped up in his bathrobe, this retiree is unable to quote a measure from the RN candidate but he “likes his ideas” and “she speaks well”. Green activists engage in conversation, even if the man appears sure of his vote. Corentin is trying to steer the discussion around the air pollution that claimed 30,000 premature deaths in France in 2019. “We don’t have five years to wait! Marine Le Pen offers nothing on ecology”, he asserts. Bruno, not very receptive to this green discourse, does not seem destabilized.

“There will always be pollution. We can’t change that.”

Bruno, voter of Marine Le Pen

at franceinfo

Between the end of the month and the end of the world, these Parisians with modest incomes have their priority. All aware of the effects of climate change, these voters remain much more concerned about purchasing power, a theme little identified with Yannick Jadot. A Sri Lankan student, who does not wish to give her first name, believes that the climate cannot be at the heart of an electoral program, unlike purchasing power, “which remains at the center of concerns”. “Yannick Jadot will not only think about the climate”bounces Lena, the EELV activist. “He knows that everything he does has an impact on people’s lives”she adds.

In her pink pajamas with the image of a kitten, the social science student listens and agrees to take the green candidate’s leaflet. “You told me some interesting things”, she concedes at the end of the conversation. Maybe a future voter ?

No time to linger, the activists change buildings. In front of the door of the building, Corentin has his technique for accessing the interior. “Yes, hello, it’s for an Amazon delivery, can you open it for me?” And here we go again. At 8:10 p.m., the tour ends, without anyone really knowing how many inhabitants will have been convinced. “Tired, anyway”breathes Corentin.