A second round of municipal elections in June would you prefer? I have no preference. What should guide us is the health dimension. Afterwards, it is important not to suspend democracy outside of the health problem. So from the moment we go crazy, when we are able to line up in stores, we must be able to organize elections. I had pushed for elected officials to remain in charge because we do not change the captain in times of crisis, apart from the Minister of Health obviously … Now, to prepare this world with the Covid, it is important to ” have elected officials who have six years of perspective before them and are no longer suspended.
With 47% in the first round, you enter this second round, confident…. You don’t approach an election with confidence or concern. In fact, we advanced 18 points in the first round between 2014 and 2020 and it is the best result of the big cities on the left or environmentalists. We’ll resume the campaign when it’s time. But, for the moment, we are mobilized on the health crisis. Which reveals the essential action of the cities, which are on the front line, in terms of food solidarity, fight against isolation, support for associations … All this was held by the public services of local authorities.
Proximity comes back to the fore… Yes, because that’s where the collective intelligence of “doing” lies. In this crisis, we were able to see women in particular holding society as a whole, all these people that Macron called in 2017 “those who are nothing”. Ultimately, they are the ones who make the fundamental of society work. Like the public service, also disparaged.
“It seems to me that our political message has taken on even more meaning with the Covid-19 crisis.” Photo Grenoble town hall.
What is the secret, according to you, of your success in Grenoble. This famous “humanist arc”? First, it starts from the idea that we are in a society of accumulation, where the powers of money are totally undefined and where social and environmental damage, but also loss of meaning, become intolerable for a number growing up of people.
A cultural majority wants something else, meaning, protection, solidarity, work around common goods, in the face of these “1%” who seek to secede and push their model as far as possible.
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Our individual, collective and institutional action aims to guarantee everyday security, to cherish the commons and living things and to nourish our desire for meaning. So everyone is able to come and build the common house. Our aim was to give a political outlet to this cultural majority and this is what happened in 2014 here, and more broadly, in 2020.
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How do you read the national push for environmentalists? This is a sign of a collective aspiration, after a growing awareness which now seeks to transform into political coherence, this is what has changed. We see it in Lyon, Annecy, Besançon, Strasbourg, Tours, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille … For the first time, the embodiment is not that of famous people but of a way of doing things, of a look at the political practice. This is a strong development. In 2014, it was only in Grenoble where this was seen. I was then completely unknown.
It seems that you think a lot about 2022 when you shave in the morning. At least, your opponents think it very strongly … Already in the fall, Guérini, the boss of LREM, said that in The Obs. It’s always a way of discrediting my very strong local commitment. Our action is anchored in the territory but I know that our voice also carries outside. I want to deconfigure speech and reconfigure the power of money. Our political message took on, I think, even more meaning with the Covid-19 crisis.
So is it now or never for a revenge for leftist ideas? We do not build a social project on a revenge of anything. There’s a desire, that’s what’s interesting. More than in 2017 when this humanist arc was exploded over three candidates, more than in 2019 in Europeans with at least five lists, this time we feel the desire to build this common house together. The confinement also enabled this dialogue. But already, on March 11, in Grenoble, we were able to reunite on the occasion of a big meeting Matthieu Orphelin, François Ruffin, Audrey Pulvar, Clémentine Autain, Julien Bayou, Guillaume Balas… so a very broad spectrum of actors . Without forgetting these unions and NGOs which draw the contours of this world we want to build, such as Alternatiba, Attac, Oxfam …
Soccer match, last March 11 in Grenoble, with François Ruffin (LFI) among others during a meeting. AFP photo
Does the left seem really ready to overcome its divisions? There will be storms because political expression is made up of differences and distrust, but it is up to us to keep our total determination to build together and put ourselves in a position to win. It’s up to us to forge human ties.
Do you see a person to embody this “arc”? Today we are working on the substance and the political process. And then, it must be said that the incarnation will be more collective. We are not in the idea of a person, woman or man, who would solve all the problems and lead the way. It is the combination of imaginations that is important. The 2017 election showed that it was not the journey of a lifetime, as for Chirac, Hollande …, which is making political success today.
Do you believe in Emmanuel Macron’s ability to reinvent himself? He had already said at the time of the Yellow Vests that nothing would be the same again. However, when he restarted the machine after being very afraid, it gave unemployment insurance reform, pension reform … The majority deputies, in 2017, joined a company with a CEO, not in a political party. This is why it is getting tense and why some are leaving. There is no internal democracy. What capacity? I don’t know… When Nicolas Hulot left, it was of course this inflection of inflection.
If Emmanuel Macron changes course, I call for a referendum because this will require being acted on by a popular decision. But it will be difficult for him to change his philosophy, that of winners and those who are nothing. On the way to Damascus, it’s not Saint Paul who wants
Eric Piolle, a pioneer? AFP photo
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Is it possible to break the RN-LREM duel? In any case, if we do not break it, we are going to face serious problems. There has never been a duel in history where the winner has always been the same. So we have to get out. The political landscape is structured in three spaces: the withdrawal and the fear carried by the extreme right, an ultra-liberal world which assumes itself and a humanist arc which reflects a cultural majority which, until now had not found to crystallize politically. So far, Grenoble has been symbolic and pioneering. Today, it is taking off. Pioneers have to convince themselves that they are not isolated checks and balances, but a power.
Interview by Florence Chédotal
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