French Greens Sweep Municipal Elections

It has been a day of historic major breakthroughs for the Green Party of France as voters went to the polls to elect new local governments. The new Mayor of Lyon is Green Party candidate Grégory Doucet. He captured a highly impressive 50.8% of the vote on his way to victory. Another huge upset occurred in Marseille where the Greens took 39.9% of the vote with Michele Rubirola becoming the new Mayor-Elect. In Strasbourg, the new mayor is Jeanne Barseghian. The 39-year-old is the first Green to head the largest city in Alsace. Barseghian, who was already a councilor, was clearly ahead in the first ballot. Now she won 42.5% against Alain Fontanel, the first mayor and candidate of the Macron party La République en Marche (LREM, the Republic on the Move). Greens also won in Besançon. “A woman in Besançon it’s very new and a very important signal,” said Anne Vignot, the Green mayor-elect of the eastern city. “We need something else politically… I hope it will be the signal of politics that will be done in a different way.” Bordeaux also fell to the Greens as Pierre Hurmic has been declared elected Mayor.