The leader of the Greens, Marine Tondelier, will fight “until her last breath” for a single left-wing candidate in the presidential election, despite the fact that the Socialists and the Insoumis have already agreed that they will run separately. “I’m fine with it if there are only ten of us, we divide into two groups of five, then into three groups of two. We’ll end up nowhere with the far right in power, and history will judge us,” Marine Tondelier warned on France Inter on Monday, June 2nd. “The Greens are very determined; we’re not going to let anyone play the game of spot the difference when the far right has already crossed the threshold of power,” she insisted. The national secretary of the Ecologists reiterated her invitation to a meeting on July 2nd with the short-lived left-wing candidate for Prime Minister Lucie Castets and leaders of the left-wing parties to consider this joint candidacy.
Photo: LP / Olivier Corsan
In the context of a possible primary, an idea notably championed by François Ruffin, “the Ecologists do not intend to be a figurehead” and “will defend their colors,” warned the woman who was reappointed at the end of April as leader of her party despite criticisms of its internal democracy.
This is all the more so since “the left is not playing its role for ecology, between La France Insoumise, which is welcoming the end of ZFEs [low-emission zones that restrict the movement of the most polluting vehicles, editor’s note] and the Socialist Party, which is pleased with the resumption of work on the A69 motorway,” she lamented. Last week, between the abolition of ZFEs, the authorization to resume construction on the A69 motorway, the backtracking on the principle of “zero net artificialization,” and the failure to oppose a proposed agricultural law that notably provides for the reintroduction of a neonicotinoid pesticide, it was “a dark week for ecology,” she acknowledged.
The environmentalist emphasized: “When ecology takes such a heavy toll as it has, we are all the victims because we are talking about your health, your environment, the future of your children and grandchildren.” According to her, “too few people appreciate the seriousness of these ongoing setbacks, of these attacks.”
