Not that the cause is bad or that I am a climate skeptic, far from it, however I had already expressed that the electoral drive of the French Greens, like the RN, is fear. Not fear of others but of the future!
If we start with the concept that since the post-war industrialization of the Western world, nothing has been designed to include standards for preserving our planet, I naturally agree. Ecology has been slow to enter the mindset of every component of the French political landscape, I admit… although gradually this dimension is being integrated.
That a political force emerged in the 70s in Germany and then in the 80s in France in the form of a party leaning to the left, I also agree since it involves consuming and living differently, thus opposing all conservatism.
But today, France is divided in terms of environmental defense: city dwellers and country folks. (No wrongful intentions, equating humans with rats please). The “yellow vests” crisis crystallized around the increase in fuel prices, across the so-called peripheral territories, and a year later many regional metropolitan areas elected #EELV mayors.
However, the political ecology proposed by these new majorities now faces a “growing pains” crisis. Between a childish phase and adulthood. Evidence of this? All these stances:
- The war on men by Alice Coffin, Paris.
- The outdated, sexist Tour de France, according to the mayor of Lyon and an “outdated sports format” as per a Rennes councilor.
- The “kind” approach to rats which should not be labeled “pests” in Strasbourg.
- The controversial funding of a mosque by a controversial federation, followed by rejecting the definition of antisemitism proposed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), also in Strasbourg.
- The abandoned Christmas tree in Bordeaux.
- The “no” to a Samuel Paty square in Paris, during a city council meeting.
- “Air travel should no longer be part of children’s dreams” according to the mayor of Poitiers.
- The refusal to provide funding for a sailing club in Vincennes.
- “The disturbance of the (sole) Jewish community” about the sadistic murder of Sarah Halimi, according to Julien Bayou…
In short, aside from the clear ‘urban-rural’ dichotomy in the electoral interests of EELV, there’s this noticeable lack of awareness of the common good.
The eco-software in France, far from “shaking things up” as claimed by Eric Piolle, mayor of Grenoble and presidential hopeful for the 2022 elections, is unsettling due to its overly urban dogmatism.
While Thomas Pesquet has soared into space as the mission commander, how can we imagine that air travel should no longer be a source of dreams?
How can we imagine that the assassination of a person for being Jewish, in France, should only stir the Jewish community?!
Across the four corners of the hexagon, controversies arise from so-called green elected officials, usually covering topics other than ecology!
Latest in line: the EELV campaign for the June regional elections in the Île-de-France region, mixing Eric Zemmour, Gérald Darmanin, Alain Finkielkraut, boomers, fascists, and hunters; accused of being citizens who might have the “guilt” of going to vote?
Boomers placed on par with fascists?
No difference between Eric Zemmour, Gérald Darmanin, and Alain Finkielkraut? All the same… just “fascists”?
At what level of political pettiness does Julien Bayou want to stoop? Even in his tweet following the Rambouillet attack that he described only as a “terrible and cowardly attack”!
And ecology in all of this? Forgotten! The republican universalism in all of this? In the basement!
In the 70s-80s, it was said that in France we didn’t have oil but we had ideas, with EELV we can boast of having darned diggers that by constantly trying to scrounge for ideas might end up finding oil, who knows? That would be ironic!
Philippe Bapt
