The EELV candidates were able to sweep the “green wave” that appeared during the first round on March 15 to the top of the steps of the town halls. Here they are at the test of power.
There was Grenoble, there will now be Lyon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, and even Besançon, Annecy or Poitiers and Tours. By winning the ballot in fifteen cities, the Europe Ecology-The Greens movement appears as the big winner in the second round of municipal. “Hope around a beautiful project”, “a green wave” who “rises in France”, repeated the smile to the ears, the frames EELV on TV sets, Sunday June 28, to salute results already historical.
> Municipal 2020: find all the results of the second round
This is “a real victory”, analysis Vanessa Jérôme, specialist in political ecology in France. “Until then, the Greens had never won real big cities, reminds the sociologist. There was Eric Piolle in Grenoble and there was Dominique Voynet in Montreuil, that’s all. There, it is still something else. “” Winning in Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Lyon, it is not nothing “, confirms Simon Persico, professor-researcher in political science.
The evening of # municipales2020 at @EELV seen by @yjadot pic.twitter.com/nGNmQY9j6C
— Sophie de Ravinel (@S2RVNL) June 28, 2020
For the specialists that Franceinfo asked, these results are in line with the historic progress made during the European elections in May 2019. With 13.47% of the votes in the last European, or more than three million votes, the list of Europe Ecology-The Greens came third nationally, becoming the first force on the left and the party in the lead among voters aged 18 to 24, recalls Le Figaro. No less than 45% of voters in cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants said they were ready, at the beginning of February, to vote in the municipal elections for a list supported by EELV, according to a Harris Interactive survey and Epoka Agency for TF1-LCI and RTL. They were only 29% of French to consider it before the European elections.
Three months ago, environmentalists had already created the surprise by arriving in the lead in Lyon (28.5%), Besançon (31.2%) or Strasbourg (27.87%) in the first round. In Grenoble, the outgoing mayor, Eric Piolle, was already leading, with 46.67% of the vote. “At a time when the ecological transition is seen as obvious, EELV benefited from a buoyant context, resumes Vanessa Jérôme. The Covid crisis also obviously went through there. Voters opened their eyes and felt concerned about the issues that until then seemed remote to them. ”
No more environmentalists with holey sweaters and sandals. They have gained real credibility over time.at franceinfo
Their growing influence is also seen in the mouths of their opponents, notes Simon Persico, who notes that they are now considered dangers, and “no longer like harmless little groups.”
European, municipal … Ballot after ballot, the environmental movement therefore continues to chart its course, while the regional ones are profiled next year, then the presidential in 2022. “The next few weeks are going to be interesting to scrutinize, indicated Vincent Tiberj, researcher in electoral sociology and professor at Sciences Po Bordeaux. Winning is good, but knowing how to govern is better. Here they are at the test of power, the hardest part begins for them. It is a very big challenge that awaits them, their slightest decision will be scrutinized. A lack of experience, substantial budgets to manage, more limited organizational resources than other parties, mayors sometimes unknown to the general public … The pressure is clearly on their shoulders. “
Let them keep in mind that they won with 60% abstention.at franceinfo
Vanessa Jérôme goes even further. “In fact, they play big and can lose everythingsums up the sociologist. They may very well be victims of [syndrome du] party that is growing a little too fast. Needless to say, the Greens subscribe to the sawtooth results. A blow up, a blow down … “. Before adding, again as a warning: “Let them not forget either that they also win and above all thanks to alliances. So we can also consider, beyond the fact that ecological ideas are progressing, that it is a victory of the whole left. “
The environmental score in the largest city in France, Paris, can thus be seen as a shadow on the board. David Belliard has indeed only arrived fourth with 10.79%, before joining the outgoing mayor Anne Hidalgo during the entre-deux-tours.
Put another way, “it is a question of credibility in the exercise of power that is being played out now, analyze Simon Persico. If they succeed, they will have won. Otherwise … The movement could quite regain the place it occupied a while ago. “ Vincent Tiberj believes that it is also up to EELV d“” hook voters who are not necessarily the most convinced. I am thinking of the precarious, the workers, more generally the “yellow vests”. Not all are necessarily irreconcilable. But that will require a real work of pedagogy “. If not ? “Otherwise, they will be ‘cornered’ as before, some will be responsible for summarizing them in a punitive ecology, which appeals only to a privileged fact class.” The famous “green ceiling”.
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