Global Issues
ENVIRONMENT: The Greening of the French, Finally
Compost boxes on the balcony of small apartments. Queues at market stalls selling organic produce. Massive audiences for a film about the state of the earth. Unprecedented votes for environmental politicians in the European elections.
Yes, the French are going green, after years of an international reputation as the enemy of groups such as Greenpeace, whose flagship the Rainbow Warrior French intelligence agents sank in 1985 as the green group protested against nuclear testing in the Pacific.
'This is the D-Day of ecology politics,' said Daniel Cohn-Bendit, leader of Europe Ecologie, after his coalition won 16.28 percent of the vote in last weekend's European elections.
The Greens came in third, behind the ruling centre-right party of President Nicolas Sarkozy that won 27.87 percent, and close on the heels of the Socialists who garnered 16.48 percent of the vote. This was the biggest endorsement the Green party had ever received, leading one newspaper to describe the results as a 'Cohn-Bendit Revolution'.
The 64-year-old Cohn-Bendit, who was a fiery student leader some 40 years ago, hasn't lost his ability to mobilise people, but political analysts say he is not the only factor in the Greens' remarkable success. Many French individuals have been quietly going environmental for the past few years, across all segments of the population, and their outlook was reflected in the vote.
'Ecology is in the air,' said Raj Isar, a Paris-based professor of cultural policy studies. 'More and more people are becoming aware of how important the environment is, and when you have a very coherent discourse by a party that rises to the moment, then people will respond appropriately.'
The French Greens also had a European rather than a national message, in contrast to other parties on the left such as the Socialists, who concentrated on national issues, Isar told IPS. The Greens focused on ways to solve problems at the European Union level where significant decisions regarding the environment are made.
'A third factor is that the traditional message of the Socialists - on welfare and social reform, for instance - has gone to the right as Socialist parties in Europe now have more centrist values,' Raj added.
'It's very difficult for the Socialists to distinguish themselves as a credible alternative to the centre-right party in power, and many of the votes that the Greens got would actually have gone to the Socialists five years ago.'
Cohn-Bendit said after the results were announced that 'Europeans welcomed our constructive, positive stance and the fact that - unlike others - we were willing to talk about genuine European issues in this European election.'
Some analysts say the Greens got a huge boost from the screening of the film 'Home' during the election period. The film by noted French photographer and environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand was screened at the popular Champ de Mars park around the Eiffel Tower last Friday evening, and drew a massive audience. A viewer who had to leave before the end told IPS that getting through the crowd was like 'trying to part the Red Sea.'
The film, a 'cry of alarm about the dangers of global warming', according to one description, was also shown on French state television, leading critics to say that it gave an unfair advantage to the Greens since national rules forbid campaigning the night before an election.
Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the extreme-right Front-National party, said that broadcasting the movie was designed to bolster the Green candidates and that the timing of the screening was 'scandalous'.
The film was also shown in other countries, and made available on YouTube for an international audience on World Environment Day, which fell Friday last week. Filmmaker Arthus-Bertrand said the scheduling had been decided many months ago, although he conceded that the coincidental timing may have indeed helped the Greens.
Several papers and a television channel asked readers this week whether the film influenced their choice. More than 40 percent of respondents said 'yes'.
But Prof. Isar thinks the film merely served to reinforce existing viewpoints about the environment. 'It's unlikely the film would cause people to change their vote,' he said. 'Ecology awareness has been growing over the past years in a wide range of ways.' The Greens had been advancing in polls conducted by French newspapers even before the screening.
Green is in the air. Sarkozy's environment minister Jean-Louis Borloo has been a leading voice on green issues, despite the President's centre-right policies. Borloo has vowed to build solar plants in each French region by 2011, and is supporting environmentalists who oppose the construction of a Formula 1 track near Paris. Opponents say the track could contaminate the city's drinking water.
Now with the Greens winning 14 seats in the European Parliament, French environmentalist politics will see some unlikely bedfellows.
© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service