The first round of the presidential election acted as an electric shock. Many voters found themselves orphans in the second round, for lack of a candidate in their eyes sufficiently committed to the climate. And today, many of them turn to NGOs. To measure the effect of this first round, you must first knock on Camille Etienne’s door. She is one of the main influencers on the climate, with nearly 130,000 followers on the social network Instagram. After April 10, she was contacted by many citizens who wanted to get involved. “I received messages, much more than usual, she says. People asked me, ‘Where to start? What can I do ?’ In one day, nearly 3,700 people joined the loop. I put them in contact with associations.
The first round of the presidential election acted as a cold shower for Tessa. This 22-year-old student has just joined Alternatiba, this movement which combines local actions and civil disobedience. Tessa has therefore crossed the barrier of commitment, of activism, struck by the contrast between the alarming reports of the IPCC this year and the absence, according to her, of environmental incarnation in the second round of the presidential election. “We no longer knew what our future was going to be, we felt despair, anger, fear at the same time”she says.
On the side of Alternatiba, there is an extraordinary “election effect”. 530 people asked to join the movement in one week. In Strasbourg, Zoe Mary participates in welcoming these newcomers who will first weigh in on the legislative campaign before entering the long-term climate strategy. “We believe that the easiest way to learn and become an activist is to go into the field, she explains. So we immediately offered them to participate in the events that are coming, in particular on the legislative elections because we intend to mobilize for this deadline.
But this election is also turning a page for the climate movement. Four years after the shock of the resignation of Nicolas Hulot, the first big march for the climate and the high school mobilizations that followed, the activists measure the lack of political effect of their mobilization. The recent presidential campaign has once again demonstrated that the climate is struggling to be heard. We must therefore engage differently according to Théo Rougier, coordinator of the climate marches and spokesperson for the collective Now or never. It develops : “It would be caricatural to think that it is the end of politics and the beginning of an action that would be more illegal. I think that we are moving towards a diversification of the climate movement. We are going to be in a perspective either to build and protect at the local level, or to start taking power.”
Several activists are now candidates for the legislative elections. During his first term, Emmanuel Macron’s action on the environment was not considered ambitious enough by most NGOs. On October 14, 2021, the French state was also condemned for climate inaction before the Paris administrative court.