Environmentalists: European collapse! Citizens don’t even want to hear about the “Green Agenda”.

Environmentalists are on the decline across Europe, especially in Germany and France, where Marie Toussaint narrowly missed 5% of the vote in the first results of yesterday’s European elections, but they have also made gains, especially in Sweden.

In Germany, with 12% of the vote, the Green Party suffered a net decline in its share compared to the 2019 elections, when it received 20.5% of the vote.

In 2019, 72 elected members of the Green Party entered the European Parliament, including 25 Germans and 12 French, a record level that is not expected to be repeated, as statistical projections give them only a little more than fifty seats.

However, they also registered victories in Sweden (15.7%) and the Netherlands, where the Green Party, allied with the Social Democrats, holds the lead with eight seats.

In France, environmentalists recorded one of their worst performances in twenty years, barely reaching the 5% required to elect members of parliament, according to estimates so far. This result, which is much lower than the 13.4% obtained by Yannick Zadu in 2019, is a new failure after the 2022 presidential elections.

French environmentalists in this election are trailing significantly in the European poll of Raphaël Glixman (PS/Place publique, about 14%), behind Manon Aubry’s France Insurrection (8-9%).

The new defeat comes on the heels of the 2022 presidential elections, when Yannick Zadou did not even reach the 5% required to cover his campaign expenses.

At party headquarters last night, the results brought deathly silence and even tears to some eyes.

Given “the war being waged against the environment, we have endured, but we are clearly retreating and retreating,” Marie Toussaint admitted, explaining that she underestimated “the power of pressure groups” and “the cultural battle against us.” He added: “I was on the front line” and “I was unable to convince” others outside “our base” and for that “I sincerely apologize.”

Although we “were not able to convince voters”, “inspire” and “meet their expectations for Europe”, as Yannick Zandou admitted, it brings some “relief” that the party managed to remain in the European Parliament. He added, “But we cannot be satisfied because we saved five (seats in the European Parliament) while we had 12 seats.”

The party chose to go it alone, refusing to form a joint ballot with the left-wing NUPES coalition, although the LFI more or less offered it the top spots on the list. He also refused to ally with the Socialist Party.

Sadrin Rousseau, the environmental representative from Paris, expressed her regret that her party was “the first to close the door” on the possibility of holding a joint vote for the left, considering that the voters did not forgive her.

Since voters did not seem to know which environment to defend between the two versions of the environmental movement, the more “radical” and the “more moderate,” we finally found ourselves between “Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Raphael Glixman,” he judged. .

Environmentalists are now expected to seek an agreement with the rest of the left in light of the early parliamentary elections. One parliamentarian estimates that “the movement will go through a crisis, and this means that it is necessary not to sweep the dust under the rug.” The same source expected the situation to become “hot” for environmental leader Marine Tudelier, as two minority groups in the party call for an early conference in late 2024 or March 2025 at the latest.

Image by Abebe-EPA