The Independent Ecological Movement (french: Mouvement écologiste indépendant) is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

founded by

Antoine Waechter Antoine Waechter (born 11 February 1949) is a French politician, leader of the Independent Ecological Movement. Early activism Antoine Waechter was born on 11 February 1949 in Mulhouse, (Haut-Rhin). He began activism early, and by 1965 had fou ...

, former presidential candidate of

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties * Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' * Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina * Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *G ...

in 1994. The MEI hoped to replace the Greens as the major green party, but due to the Green's electoral deals with larger parties, it failed to do so. They claim to be purely ecologist, and neither on the left or right. Waechter failed to win enough endorsements to be a candidate in the

1995 French presidential election Presidential elections in France, Presidential elections were held in France on 23 April, with a second round on 7 May. Background The French Socialist Party, Socialist incumbent president François Mitterrand, who had been in office since 19 ...

. The party ran candidates in the 2004 regional elections and in the

2004 European Parliament election in France Elections to the European Parliament were held in France on 13 June 2004. The opposition Socialist Party made substantial gains, although this was mainly at the expense of minor parties. The governing Union for a Popular Movement and Union for Fr ...

and were able to prevent the Greens from gaining more seats, such as in the Eastern EU parliamentary region where the MEI's 3% were enough to prevent the Greens from taking 2 seats there instead of one. In the

2007 presidential election This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not i ...

, Antoine Waechter rallied the centrist Francois Bayrou after failing to be a candidate himself. Before the 2007 general election, the party signed an electoral deal with

Ecology Generation Ecology Generation (french: Génération écologie) is one of the four green parties in France, along with Europe Ecology – The Greens (), the Independent Ecological Movement (), and Cap Écologie. Founded in 1990 by Brice Lalonde, Environment ...

, the Greens and

CAP21 The Citizenship, Action, Participation for the 21st Century (french: Citoyenneté, action, participation pour le e siècle) was a minor green liberal political party in France, founded by Corinne Lepage in 1996 as a political reflection club. ...

having refused to join. 133 MEI candidates nationwide ran for the assembly's 577 seats. 84 candidates obtained 1% or more, even with Green opposition. The MEI seems to have become France's second green party. Despite being openly favourable to the

Europe Écologie Europe Ecology (french: Europe Écologie) was a green electoral coalition of political parties in France created for the 2009 European elections composed of The Greens and other ecologists and regionalists. For the European Parliament election ...

coalition, for the

2009 European Parliament election The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making th ...

, the party ran as part of the

Independent Ecological Alliance The Independent Ecological Alliance (french: Alliance écologiste indépendante) was a French electoral coalition originally created to participate in the 2009 European elections composed of the Independent Ecological Movement, Ecology Generati ...

which won 3.63% of the vote. The party continued its participation in the

during the 2010 regional elections, except notably in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

where it participated in a joint

-MEI list, which later merged with the

Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

list. Antoine Waechter was elected regional councillor for the

Haut-Rhin Haut-Rhin (, ; Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; german: Oberelsass, ) is a department in the Grand Est region of France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine. Its name means ''Upper Rhine''. Haut-Rhin is the ...

and the party received 2 other regional councillors across France.

References

External links

*
Official web site
*
MEI election results as of September 2007
Green political parties in France Political parties established in 1994 *Main 1994 establishments in France Centrist parties in France {{france-party-stub