Sandrine Rousseau, the radical and feminist surprise of the environmentalist primary

Published on : 09/20/2021 – 6:20 PM

“She could well win the primary and even exceed the score of Eva Joly in the presidential election of 2012”, ventures to predict Daniel Boy, director of research emeritus at Sciences Po – Cevipof, in an interview with France 24. Yet , the name of Sandrine Rousseau is not well known to the general public. For stand out from its media competitors to the primary environmentalist, the candidate has been advocating uncompromising ecology from the start of the campaign. Short and graying hair, thin-rimmed glasses, dark and strict costumes, the vice-president of the University of Lille, and economist by profession, embodies radicalism in her style as in her ideas. Reintegration income for unemployed from 18 years, increase in the progressivity of income tax, ban on pesticides, the Lille does not plead for half-measures. “Unlike Yannick Jadot who campaigns for an ecology of government, Sandrine Rousseau endorses the ideas dear to rebellious France by repeating at will that it is necessary to make the rich pay”, continues the political scientist.

Fighter and strategist, the outsider of the poll also presents herself as an “ecofeminist”. “For a long time, I was a feminist and an environmentalist, but I led these two fights separately, without making the connection. However, what unites them is however fundamental: it is the refusal of predation”, explained the economist. to Politis in May 2021 to explain this concept. His speech pleases. The one that no one saw coming won her ticket for the second round of the primary on September 19. “Sandrine Rousseau was able to take advantage of her career by embodying feminism, because she understood that it was no longer just a political position, but a real major turning point in our society”, underlines the specialist in political ecology Daniel Boy .

Activist from the start

The 49-year-old economist is not a newbie in politics either. Born on March 8, 1972, of parents tax controllers and left activists, she entered politics in 2009. The very young party Europe Ecology-The Greens (EELV) of Daniel Cohn-Bendit seeks to recruit profiles from society civil in view of the European elections. His status as a lecturer in economics at the University of Lille, specialist in environmental economics, sustainable development and professional insecurity, makes him an ideal recruit. The young teacher then launches into the great political bath. Her name appears in fifth position on the EELV list carried by Hélène Flautre in the North. She was not elected, but the politician was born.

Again a candidate in 2010, in the regional elections in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, she became regional councilor and vice-president of the Hauts-de-France region, in charge of higher education and research. She acceded the following year to the executive office of EELV where she would become number 2. She suffered a major failure in the regional elections of 2015: head of the EELV list within a pulverized left, she did not cross the 5% mark. necessary for the reimbursement of campaign costs.

Pioneer of #MeToo and resignation of EELV

It was not until 2016 that his name began to circulate in the media. One year before the start of the #MeToo movement, Mediapart and France Inter reveal in a joint investigation that eight women accuse Denis Baupin, vice-president (EELV) of the National Assembly, harassment and sexual assault. Among the victims, there is Sandrine Rousseau. The one who was then the spokesperson for the party testified openly. A few tears shed on the set of the show “We are not lying”, faced with the virulent remarks of Christine Angot, definitely bring her out of the shadows. The ecologist is not content to denounce. She files a complaint against the party framework. His “statements” are deemed “measured” and “corroborated” by the Paris prosecutor’s office. But the facts that took place in 2011 are time-barred: the complaint is dismissed. The case does not end there, however. Denis Baupin counterattacked and in turn sued for defamation. Without success. The complainant was sentenced in April 2019 for abusive proceedings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6DS_h9nwI

This brand new media exposure has earned him encouragement. But also critics even within the ranks of his party. Even today, Sandrine Rousseau says she is marked by “violence” which has been released against her word. “People refused to say hello to me. There is something indescribable which is united against you, marginalizing you: I was no longer a politician, nor an economist, but simply a victim.” Among the Greens, “the event was lived in a very painful way, because they believed they were protected from this kind of problem in their ranks, abounds Daniel Boy. There was an internal trauma. Some might have preferred that the ‘matter is not publicized. ”

Her detractors end up getting the better of her commitment: the activist resigned from the party in September 2017. In an interview with the newspaper L’Humanité, she admits that she no longer succeeds in “being an activist in a party where this happened”. After the publication of her book “Parler” in which she traces the Denis Baupin affair, she created an association of the same name which aims to encourage victims of sexual violence to file a complaint. Offices are open in ten French cities. A pride, assures the activist.

Winning return?

Didn’t he miss politics? You have to believe it. Because on September 5, 2020, Sandrine Rousseau announces her re-membership to EELV and declares herself a candidate for the primary from the following October 26. It justifies his return by the appointment of Gérald Darmanin as Minister of the Interior, in July 2020, while he is accused of rape.

Hardly returned to the forefront of the political scene, the attacks resumed. On condition of anonymity, an EELV executive commented on her return to AFP: “She goes out of her way to be head of the list [lors des élections régionales de 2015, NDLR], the strategy is contested at the local level, things go wrong, we all have to contribute to repay, she disappears from political life and several years later she comes back to say ‘I want to be President of the Republic’ “.

She also knows her first media slippages. At the end of August 2021, a few weeks before the first round of the primary, the candidate favorable to the reception of Afghan refugees declares at the microphone of BFMTV that if terrorists were among them, “to have them in France allows us[trait] also to watch them. “A formulation” awkward “, she later admits, which places it under fire of the critics.

However, environmentalists have no room for error in this presidential election. They have two objectives: first to pass the 5% mark to avoid the financial catastrophe of the party and to weigh on the political spectrum by overtaking the Socialists, estimates the Cevipof researcher. The task is not easy. “Sandrine Rousseau is combative, assures Daniel Boy, but does she have enough experience to take up this challenge?” In the meantime, he will already have to win against the favorite, Yannick Jadot, broken in the debate and the media. “And in this area, it will already have to demonstrate its capacity for political combat.”