“The buzz” of the Rousseau-Bayou affair “erases the political debate”, analyzes a political scientist

Europe-Ecologie The Greens is a divided party where “the buzz erases the political debate”analyzes Friday October 7 on franceinfo Christophe Boutin, political scientist and professor of public law at the University of Caen, while the parliamentary days of EELV take place from Thursday in Strasbourg and until Friday. “The cleavage is concentrated today between Sandrine Rousseau and Julien Bayou, but we also feel a cleavage on the way to proceed”he believes.

franceinfo: Is the fracture between Sandrine Rousseau and the rest of the party irreversible?

Christopher Boutin: There is a major tension but the Greens have accustomed us to this kind of tension internally, either during the primaries or during the congresses. This has sometimes led to sidelining, or on the contrary to reuniting on a common line. But currently there is a cleavage which raises the question of the position of the party in the alliance of the NUPES and what it must prepare for the next deadlines. The cleavage is concentrated today between Sandrine Rousseau and Julien Bayou, but we also feel a cleavage on the way to proceed.

You talk about the usual tensions in recent years within Europe-Ecologie Les Verts. Why can’t the party come to an agreement?

EELV works on very open rules of democratic discussion and debates with the good side and the bad side. The good side is that you can present your point of view and defend it.

“The downside is that from the outside it looks like the party is getting lost in endless debates.”

Christophe Boutin, political scientist

at franceinfo

We then see the regular appearance of divisions between people like Nicolas Hulot against Eva Joly or even Cécile Duflot against Yannick Jadot. The party also emerged weakened from the presidential election with a lower score than expected. The quarrels of people are doubled on different political axes.

So how to reverse the trend? Because no one has heard of the “just sobriety” plan presented yesterday by EELV.

He went completely down the drain. It was doubly badly presented. EELV released it just before the announcement of the government program. And in addition, we only deal with the conflict between Bayou and Rousseau and absolutely not with the proposed plan. It is a major political failure. The buzz made by Sandrine Rousseau completely erased the political debate. For the moment, the 23 deputies of the party are unable to show any form of unity. The unit was made on a program, but no one talks about it. Internal tensions go beyond the benches of the Assembly.