In the summer days of environmentalists, the 2022 presidential election on the horizon – archyworldys

“The role of a party is to produce ideas, to discipline egos”, likes to say Julien Bayou, national secretary of Europe Ecology-Les Verts (EELV), in an apocryphal quote from Michel Rocard. In Poitiers, the first of the three “Summer Days of Ecologists”, Thursday August 19, was rich in both.

Ego level, Eric Piolle and Yannick Jadot, two candidates often perceived as favorites, had ” flames “ for one hour each, in an open-air theater. The deputy of Deux-Sèvres Delphine Batho, the ecologist “centrist” Jean-Marc Governatori and the economist Sandrine Rousseau were posted for Friday.

At the opening of these days marked by the proximity of the primary ecologist, which will be held from September 16, Julien Bayou took care to call everyone to “Finally lose the habit of losing” for 2022. “The road to victory is tight but it exists”, he insisted.

While waiting for the televised debates in September, on France Inter and LCI, the candidates have therefore installed their voices, their ideas and their support each in turn on the lawns of the park of Blossac. A way to avoid a frontal debate that could turn sour, while still marking deep differences in positions and ideas.

Thursday, if the address of Yannick Jadot already had home straight accents for the presidential election, that of Eric Piolle spared dialogue and self-criticism, with environmental sympathizers divided between the desire to gain power but sometimes also allergic to “Virilism” of political life or the excessive personalization of the V^e Republic.

“I don’t have the melon, I have the peach”

Eric Piolle entered the track under the first ray of sunshine of the day. Well surrounded, the mayor of Grenoble was given a standing ovation among others by the “Jeunes pour Piolle” (JPP) and their rainbow placards for “Humanist arc”. The candidate highlighted his experience as mayor – “After 2014, I was invited everywhere to say that ecology can win. Now, I can say that ecology in power, it works ”. And took stock of his Tour de France undertaken this summer. “I am not desperate, far from it, I am convinced that there are more and more of us. “

The city councilor did not hesitate to take his self-portrait, that of a former engineer who came to after his career with environmentalists, from a hard worker who“Leads” to the exercise of power. “In my head, I have conditioned myself, since the election of Emmanuel Macron, I have trained, I know how I work (…) we have to set a course, me, until 2032, my life project is that. “ A posture which, while confining to humility – “When I am congratulated, when I am criticized, it is the public man that I carry on my back, that does not change who I am at the bottom of me” -, gave pride of place to self-talk.

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