Primary environmentalist: Sandrine Rousseau, buzz or ball asset for EELV? – The HuffPost

Photo taken from Sandrine Rousseau’s campaign tools

POLITICS – It’s already a small victory. In the days preceding the debate organized this Sunday, September 5 between the various candidates for the green primary, the media only had it for her: Sandrine Rousseau. She “shakes up the countryside” at The Obs, even the “electrify” for Challenges when The Parisian wonders “what is playing” the economist who “multiplies the shattering statements”. It must be said that the past few days have been particularly agitated on the media level, the person having succeeded in titillating the duel Piolle / Jadot which was installed in the press.

A remarkable entry into the subject for those who assume to carry a radical “ecofeminism”, at the cost of multiple controversies. Like the outcry caused by his exit risky on the Afghan “potential terrorists” who could be hiding among the refugees, and which earned him a backpedaling in good standing. Or from his interview at Charlie hebdo in which she says she prefers “women who cast spells rather than men who build PRTs”.

A statement that triggered an avalanche of mocking comments on Twitter and which made the happiness of his political opponents. “Of the big nonsense”, has in particular mocked LREM MEP Irène Tolleret, criticizing the ecofeminist candidate for falling into “the gender stereotype”.

“It’s very positive”

Critics which, in reality, do not disturb the main interested party, or those around her. “IThere is significant media coverage around his candidacy. It is very positive. It is divisive, so obviously that is noticeable, and that’s good ”, decrypts for The HuffPost its spokesperson Thomas Portes, who considers that the teacher-researcher has at least the merit of offering “a spotlight” to the ecological primary, “by the dynamism that it embodies and the positions that it carries” .

A kind of ability to create a buzz that would benefit all contenders for the EELV nomination. Which, among his opponents, is not necessarily badly perceived. “The idea of ​​the open primary, beyond the tie-breaker, is to create enthusiasm around ecology and popularize our ideas”, explains Mounir Satoury, close to Yannick Jadot, who refuses to comment on the polemical outputs of the economist: “we do not campaign against each other”.

But the counterpart of this spotlight is that the transgression that is at the origin can splash the other candidates, as when Yannick Jadot been invited to react to his statement on Afghan refugees.

The risk of the scarecrow

Another risk, “his words can also act like a scarecrow,” observes a socialist framework attentive to what is happening among his fellow environmentalists. “It is sure that it is gaining notoriety, but it is not possible to say certain things”, continues this source. Proof that a potential boomerang effect should not be overlooked, the interference announced by Damien rieu, founder of Génération Identitaire and former RN candidate in the departmental elections.

Objective for this figure of the extreme right: to promote the Rousseau vote so that the Greens find themselves campaigning behind the most radical candidate. “Sandrine Rousseau is the only environmental candidate who does not disguise herself. Unlike the other candidates, she does not wear a tie to hide her ‘Khmer Green’ side. She goes to the end of her ecological ideology and if she wins, we will see the true face of EELV ”, explained the person concerned to BFMTV, calling on his people to register for primary and vote for the ecofeminist.

If this attempt at interference is unlikely to really move the lines, it emphasizes that the positioning of the candidate can also pose difficulties to the environmental training. As when his teams offered the spectacle of the division, during the real-fake stampede with Éric Piolle’s teams. An episode that spoiled the summer schools of Julien Bayou’s party, who himself investigated to find out what had really happened between the two. This time, the internal competition had come close to the “bad buzz”. Which, on the electoral level, is rarely promising.

See also on Le HuffPost: Former LREM Aurélien Taché supports Éric Piolle for the presidential election