2021 French Green Party presidential primary

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (October 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

2021 French Green Party presidential primary

← 2016 28 September 2021 (2021-09-28)
Turnout	85.41%
Candidate Yannick Jadot Sandrine Rousseau Party Europe Ecology – The Greens Europe Ecology – The Greens Percentage 51.03% 48.97%

The 2021 ecology primary took place on 19 September 2021 to nominate the candidate of the electoral coalition (Europe Ecology - The Greens, Génération.s , Ecology Generation, Cap écologie and the Movement of Progressives) in the French presidential election of 2022.

This primary was open to any French citizen over the age of 16, through a contribution of €2 and membership in a “charter of ecological values”. 122,670 voters were registered, which was 7 times more than in the 2016 primary. More than 85% took part in the two rounds of voting.

Five candidates are in the running: Yannick Jadot, Sandrine Rousseau, Delphine Batho, Éric Piolle and .

The first round was a close battle between 4 candidates, each of whom obtained over 20% of the vote. Yannick Jadot was the frontrunner and Sandrine Rousseau progressed to the second round, while the others were eliminated. A week later, on 28 September, Yannick Jadot narrowly won the second round of the primary, with 51.03% of the vote.^[1]

Electoral Process[]

Registration conditions[]

Applications and their sponsorships were submitted in July 2021.

The registration of voters, available for all those over 16, is done via a participation of €2 and the signing of a "charter of ecological values", before September 12th

The primary takes place in two rounds, from 16 to 19 September and then from 25 to 28 September. 122,670 voters were registered, a number well above the 17,000 registered for the 2016 primary and the record 33,000 registered for the 2011 primary.

Voting for each round is done online on a secure platform.

Security and suspicions of interference by the extreme right measures[]

Several far-right figures (in particular and Sébastien Chenu of the National Rally) announce that they want to disrupt the primary by voting massively for Rousseau, with the aim of removing Jadot.

In order to guarantee the security of the ballot, registration was done online on a dedicated platform and required providing an email and phone number that cannot be reused. Similarly, people who used the same bank card more than three times in a row to pay their participation were suspended, which led to the exclusion of 1,464 people, 1.18% of people registered.

The various environmental officials believe that the election was not disrupted or hacked; nevertheless, "nobody is able to know if there was a real impact of the voters of the extreme right on this primary" according to a researcher interviewed by Liberation. The election provider indicates after the first round that “the electronic voting system [...] offered an excellent level of security”.

Candidates[]

Corinne Lepage announced on 8 July the exclusion of Cap21 (not registered in the statutes of the primary as Cap ecology following its merger with the AEI) from the process of organizing the primary, due to differences on the commitments linked to the ballot as well as to questions of “secularism and the Republic”. , who chairs Cap ecology with her, announced his candidacy on 3 July 2021, presenting himself as a candidate for “ecology at the center”. Deprived of sponsorships from Cap21, he did not receive the 28 supporting votes necessary for the validation of his application by the deadline of 12 July. Deeming himself wronged, Governatori sued the Union for Ecology in 2022, the association which organized the primary: on 29 July the Bobigny court ordered it to pay €2,000 in compensation to Cap21 as well as 'to the AEI; the court also orders the suspension of the exclusion of Cap21, and consequently the validation of the candidacy of Governatori for the primary. Although the reinstatement of her party allowed Jean-Marc Governatori to obtain sponsorships, Lepage said that she did not support any candidate in the first round.

Debates[]

A first debate was organised on France Inter on 5 September from noon, in partnership with France Info and the daily Le Monde.

Two other debates were broadcast by the LCI channel, in collaboration with the daily Le Figaro and the online media : one for the first round on September 8 and one for the second round on 22 September. They were presented by journalist Ruth Elkrief.

Mediapart organised a debate between the five candidates in its program broadcast online À l'air libre.

Polls[]

The percentages in bold indicate the top two candidates who would go to a second round, if needed.

Results and analysis[]

First round results analysis[]

After the first round of the primary, Daniel Boy, a specialist in political ecology, believed that the electorate voted for harder left candidates than expected, and that surprisingly Jadot could be in danger for the second round. Batho, a former socialist, did unexpectedly well. Piolle had a poor turnout, with the media speculating that he could have come second. However, his campaign lacked ambition and vision, in contrast to Rousseau and Batho, who campaigned on the marked positions of ecofeminism and degrowth, respectively.

Support candidates eliminated in the first round[]

Batho and Piolle gave no support for either candidate in the second round. Governatori endorsed Jadot.

Results of the second round analysis[]

In the aftermath of Yannick Jadot's victory, the editorial in Le Monde synthesised its scope and issues: "His designation, even by a short head, marks a turning point in the history of the environmental family", until then more inclined "to choose candidates for testimony than to assert a presidential ambition". The main challenge that awaits him is "to clear enough the congested ground of the left to appear as the one who can really" challenge Emmanuel Macron. He is supported by his competitors now united around him, but the gap "between the government project of Yannick Jadot and the desire for transformation of Sandrine Rousseau", in particular, "that the synthesis appears difficult to build".^[2]

References[]