The Ecologists – Europe Ecology The Greens (), commonly known as The Ecologists (, LE) and formerly as Europe Ecology The Greens ( , EELV ) until 2023, is a

centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

political party in France. The party is a member of the

European Green Party The European Green Party (EGP), also referred to as European Greens, is a transnational, European political party representing national parties from across Europe who share Green values. The European Greens works closely with the Greens–Eur ...

. It was formed on 13 November 2010 from the merger of The Greens and Europe Ecology.

History

Party foundation

Following the 2008 municipal elections, The Greens sought to increase their political influence. Echoing these calls, Daniel Cohn-Bendit proposed the creation of open electoral lists for the 2009 European elections and the Greens' leadership allowed for the exploration of this possibility. Europe Ecology (EE), launched in the autumn of 2008, allowed The Greens to create a wider

electoral alliance An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand in elections. E ...

with

environmentalists Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecologi ...

and social activists who had not been party members in the past. The new structure included, alongside longtime Green politicians, new activists or environmentalists such as Jean-Paul Besset (close to Nicolas Hulot), José Bové ( alter-globalisation activist from the ''Confédération paysanne''), Yannick Jadot (former head of

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of Environmental movement, environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its biod ...

France), Eva Joly (magistrate) and Michèle Rivasi (founder of CRIIRAD). EE was successful in the 2009 European elections on 7 June 2009, reaching third place in France with 16.3% of the vote, only a few thousand votes behind the Socialist Party (PS), winning 14 of France's 72 seats in the European Parliament. The experience led to further attempts to expand the French green movement, ahead of the 2010 regional elections. Europe Ecology ran independent lists in the first round in every region, once again with the participation of new activists including Philippe Meirieu, Laurence Vichnievsky or Augustin Legrand. While they fell short of their 2009 success, EE nevertheless managed to win 12.5% of the vote nationally (third place). The Greens and those new activists who joined the movement by way of EE – but who did not wish to join the party – began talks to allow for the creation of a new, enlarged

political movement A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some t ...

. In October and November 2010, EE and later The Greens ratified new statutes and a new manifesto. Notably, these new statutes allowed for "cooperators" - individuals who did not join the party as full paying members but who are nonetheless allowed to run as candidates, vote in presidential primaries and partake in debates over the platform. The official launch of the new party, presented as a new political force, was held in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

on 9 November 2010. The new party adopted the name Europe Ecology – The Greens (''Europe Écologie Les Verts'', EELV). However, the launch of the party was marked by tensions between longtime politicians from the former Green party and new activists from various non-political social movements. Jean-Paul Besset, for example, resigned all his leadership responsibilities in EELV within weeks and denounced a "poisonous

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

atmosphere". A month later, Philippe Meirieu was named as the first president of the party's new federal council, created by the EELV statutes. In the 2011 cantonal elections, EELV won 8.2% of the vote nationally – becoming the third largest force on the left behind the PS and Left Front (FG). Although the traditional runoff deals were sealed with both of these parties, some EELV candidates qualified for the runoff against other left-wing candidates did not withdraw, creating tensions with EELV's traditional left-wing allies. Ultimately, EELV won 27 seats, 16 more seats than what the Greens had won in the same series of cantons in 2004. A presidential primary to nominate a candidate for the 2012 presidential election, open to members and cooperators, was held in June and July 2011. Four candidates sought the EELV nomination, most notably Eva Joly, an MEP and Nicolas Hulot, a well known TV personality and environmentalist. Joly emerged victorious in the runoff on 12 July with 58.16%. In the 2011 senatorial elections, an agreement with the PS allowed for the first left senatorial majority under the Fifth Republic and the creation of the first entirely green parliamentary group. On 15 November 2011, EELV and the PS signed a coalition agreement prior to the 2012 presidential election. The agreement included a commitment to reduce the share of nuclear energy in France from 75% to 50% by 2025, the progressive shutdown of 24 nuclear reactors, the creation of a carbon tax and raising taxes on very high incomes. The agreement also included an ad hoc electoral deal for the 2012 legislative elections in which the PS conceded over 60 constituencies to EELV, which would allow EELV to form a parliamentary group. On 8 May 2012, following the left's victory with

François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. Before his presidency, he was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (France), First Secretary of th ...

, EELV's federal council voted in favour of cabinet participation in the new left-wing government.

2012–2015: presidential and legislative elections, partners of the government

In the 2012 presidential election, EELV candidate Eva Joly won 2.3% of the vote and was eliminated in the first round. In the 2012 legislative elections, EELV candidates won 5.46% nationally and elected a record 17 deputies (in addition to one member of the regionalist Breton Democratic Union, backed by EELV). However, every EELV deputy who was victorious had benefited from the endorsement of the PS, although many faced local PS dissidents. In the government of Jean-Marc Ayrault formed on 16 May 2012, EELV has two cabinet ministers: former party leader Cécile Duflot as minister of housing and territorial equality, and former MEP Pascal Canfin as junior minister for international development. In the 2014 European elections on 25 May 2014, EELV received 8.95% of the vote, sixth place nationally, returning 6 MEPs.

Since 2017: opposition to Emmanuel Macron, European elections and municipal victories

In the 2019 European elections, EELV performed significantly above expectations, winning 13.5% of the vote and 13 out of 79 MEPs, placing third behind LREM and RN. This came despite EELV having not polled above 10% during the campaign. Following the success of the 2019 European elections, the polls for the municipal elections predict good results for EELV. Thus, cities like

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

, Villeurbanne,

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

Besançon Besançon (, ; , ; archaic ; ) is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerland. Capi ...

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

are considered as being able to be won. On the evening of the first round, around twenty environmentalist lists won the elections in the first round (including outgoing mayors such as in Schiltigheim), and EELV came out on top in several large cities (

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

), or second but favorite in others (

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

Poitiers Poitiers is a city on the river Clain in west-central France. It is a commune in France, commune, the capital of the Vienne (department), Vienne department and the historical center of Poitou, Poitou Province. In 2021, it had a population of 9 ...

). The scores are however disappointing in several big cities like

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region of Southern France. Located between the Med ...

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

. In the latter, however, the EELV's list (8% in the first round) merges with the union list of the left which came in first (23%), moreover led by an environmental candidate from but suspended from the party, Michèle Rubirola. The second round confirms these good scores since the party wins the municipalities of

and

, the latter not having known alternation since 1945, but also

Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

and

. The candidates of

and

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

both suffer a narrow loss of 200 votes, respectively against and with the Socialist Party. The

and Villeurbanne's lists join those of the Socialist Party, both elected, like that of

. In October 2022, The New Democrats merged into EELV. In October 2023, EELV changed its name to The Ecologists.

Ideology

As a green party, EELV prioritises and emphasises environmental issues. It calls for a 40% reduction in CO₂ emissions, phasing out

nuclear energy Nuclear energy may refer to: *Nuclear power, the use of sustained nuclear fission or nuclear fusion to generate heat and electricity *Nuclear binding energy, the energy needed to fuse or split a nucleus of an atom *Nuclear potential energy, the pot ...

in favour of

renewable energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...

, the creation of 600,000 green jobs, eco-friendly

urban planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

(the creation of green housing and the promotion of public transportation), the development of sustainable agriculture and a moratorium on the use of

genetically modified organism A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The exact definition of a genetically modified organism and what constitutes genetic engineering varies, with ...

s. EELV, like the Greens before it, has generally opposed large-scale development projects, most recently the '' Aéroport du Grand Ouest'' in Notre-Dame-des-Landes ( Loire-Atlantique), although the PS and the incumbent government officially support the project. On economic issues, EELV leans strongly to the left. Besides the creation of 'green jobs' in fields such as thermal isolation and renewable energies, it also supports a carbon tax and raising the progressive income tax levels for high earners (60% for incomes between €100,000 and €500,000, 70% for incomes over €500,000). EELV is close to some anticapitalist and many alter-globalisation activists. In its alternative budget in 2011, EELV proposed to reduce the public debt by closing fiscal loopholes. The party has traditionally supported European federalism, although many of its European policies are in conflict with the current direction and leadership of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. EELV, like the Greens before it, has been one of the strongest proponents of decentralisation, officially supporting "differentiated federalism" which would devolve significant powers to the

regions of France France is divided into eighteen administrative regions (, singular ), of which thirteen are located in metropolitan France (in Europe), while the other five are overseas regions (not to be confused with the overseas collectivities, which ha ...

. The regionalist federation '' Régions et Peuples Solidaires'' has long been closely allied to the green movement in France. François Alfonsi of the Party of the Corsican Nation (PNC) was elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

on an EE list in 2009. The green movement supports political reform, including voting rights for foreigners in both local and national elections, abolishing the '' cumul des mandats'', term limits and a ' Sixth Republic' with a more powers for the

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

and

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate directly decides on policy initiatives, without legislator, elected representatives as proxies, as opposed to the representative democracy m ...

. The greens have long promoted

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality, gender egalitarianism, or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, an ...

in politics, its leadership and electoral candidates tend to respect gender parity and the EELV group in the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

has two co-presidents, one male and one female.

Electoral results

Presidential

Legislative

* 18 (incl. Paul Molac of the UDB) were elected, but Cécile Duflot resigned her seat while minister in the government, the seat went to PS. She re-took her seat in May 2014. Isabelle Attard left EELV for

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

in December 2013.

European Parliament

Other elections

* 2010 regional elections: EE lists won 12.2% nationally in the first round. It won its best result (17.82%) in Rhône-Alpes. All its lists withdrew and merged with PS lists, except in

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

, where it maintained its own separate list and won 17.4% of the votes in the runoff. * 2011 cantonal elections: EELV won 8.22% nationally and 27 seats. * 2020 municipal elections: EELV won, as senior member of coalitions (mostly with left parties such as PS or LFI), some of the largest French cities, including

, Nancy and

, while keeping the city of

(mayor reelected in first round). EELV was close to victory in

and

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

. The press called it a "green wave", highlighting the importance of ecology in French politics.

Elected officials

Member of the
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

* Christine Arrighi ( Haute-Garonne's 9th constituency) * Julien Bayou ( Paris's 5th constituency) * Lisa Belluco ( Vienne's 1st constituency) * Cyrielle Chatelain ( Isère's 2nd constituency) * Charles Fournier ( Indre-et-Loire's 1st constituency) * Marie-Charlotte Garin ( Rhône's 3rd constituency) * Jérémie Iordanoff ( Isère's 5th constituency) * Julie Laernoes ( Loire-Atlantique's 4th constituency) * Francesca Pasquini ( Hauts-de-Seine's 2nd constituency) * Marie Pochon ( Drôme's 3rd constituency) * Jean-Claude Raux ( Loire-Atlantique's 6th constituency) * Sandra Regol ( Bas-Rhin's 1st constituency) * Sandrine Rousseau ( Paris's 9th constituency) * Éva Sas ( Paris's 8th constituency) * Sabrina Sebaihi ( Hauts-de-Seine's 4th constituency) * Nicholas Thierry ( Gironde's 2nd constituency)

Member of the
French Senate The Senate (, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly (France), National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. It is made up of 348 senators (''sénateurs'' and ...

* Esther Benbassa ( Val-de-Marne) * Ronan Dantec ( Loire-Atlantique) * Raymonde Poncet (

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...

) * Thomas Dossus (

) * Jacques Fernique (

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin () is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its lower altitude among the two French Rhine departments: it is downstream of the Haut-Rhin (Upper Rhine) de ...

) * Monique de Marco (

Gironde Gironde ( , US usually , ; , ) is the largest department in the southwestern French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, its prefecture is Bordeaux. In 2019, it had a population of 1,623,749.

) * Guy Benarroche ( Bouches-du-Rhône) * Daniel Salmon (

Ille-et-Vilaine Ille-et-Vilaine (; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Ill-e-Vilaenn'', ) is a departments of France, department of France, located in the regions of France, region of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in the northwest of the country. It is named a ...

) * Guillaume Gontard (

Isère Isère ( , ; ; , ) is a landlocked Departments of France, department in the southeastern French Regions of France, region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Named after the river Isère (river), Isère, it had a population of 1,271,166 in 2019.

)

MEPs

* Benoît Biteau * Damien Carême * David Cormand * Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield * Karima Delli * Yannick Jadot * Michèle Rivasi * Mounir Satouri * Marie Toussaint

Other elected officials

EELV claims 34 departmental councillors, 65 regional councillors and 50 mayors. Cities with an EELV mayor include

and

Leadership

The party executive is formed by the Executive Bureau. The national secretary is the leader of the executive bureau and is the party's most senior leader. The federal council is composed of 150 members (75 men and 75 women) and serves as the party's parliament, meeting on a monthly basis. * National secretaries: Cécile Duflot (2010–2012), Pascal Durand (2012–2013), Emmanuelle Cosse (2013–2016), David Cormand (2016–2019), Julien Bayou (2019–2022), Marine Tondelier (2022–present) * President of the federal council: Philippe Meirieu (2010–2013), Thierry Brochot (2013–2016), Nicolas Bonnet (2016–2019), Henri Arevalo (2019–present)

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Europe Ecology - The Greens 2010 establishments in France Political parties established in 2010 Green political parties in France European Green Party Political parties of the French Fifth Republic Global Greens member parties Left-wing parties in France Pro-European political parties in France pt:Grupo dos Verdes/Aliança Livre Europeia