Ecology: the great oath of the right

A night of ecology to convince. Tuesday evening, Porte de Versailles in Paris, The Republicans are organizing a major collective reflection on the environmental issue. It is about sending an ambitious political message to try to convince an electorate, often young, who does not yet believe that solutions for the planet can come from the right.

However, during this thematic night during which the Republicans want to convince people of their commitment on this subject, everything is planned to dare the debate and recognize that the right, even if it was a precursor in the matter, has not sufficiently raised this urgency at the heart of its concerns.

The European deputy Geoffroy Didier, conductor of the event with the young deputy Antoine Vermorel-Marquez, admits the difficulty for LR to exist on this theme. “The right was innovative but it put the subject aside by taking refuge in its fundamentals, but we clearly feel today that we must widen the circle,” assures the European elected official, convinced that right-wing voters are waiting a right-wing ecological discourse. “Some surveys show us that environmental concern among our voters is now above that of security: we must be up to the task,” insists Geoffroy Didier, promising that on this specific subject, there is in his political family today today a collective awareness of the “demand” of the challenge. “For us it is also a political emergency,” he underlines, while according to a study presented Tuesday evening, the ecology generation also exists on the right. “It’s a theme that must be familiar to us,” declared Senator Bruno Retailleau, defending the idea of ​​a “different offer.”

Among the personalities present Tuesday evening, we see the former Secretary of State for Ecology Chantal Jouanno, Bruno Retailleau, Brice Hortefeux, Julien Aubert, Annie Genevard, Philippe Tabarot, Florence Portelli, Christine Lavarde, François Durovray, Olivier Marleix, Daniel Fasquelle... Some of them came to share their practical experience of ecology on the scale of a municipality, a department or a region.

But why might voters waiting for an effective ecology, often young, suddenly believe that the right is capable of taking up such a challenge? “That’s the difficulty indeed, but on the right, there is a new generation of elected officials who have never exercised power. a generation which this evening is making a political commitment. basically, it is a promise in the noble sense of the term because we ourselves, elected officials, feel very concerned and we know that ecology is not an option,” promises the parliamentarian.

But if the Republicans invite personalities like Robert Vautard, co-president of the IPCC or the activist engineer Jean-Marc Jancovici who had been strongly criticized for having proposed a limitation of four air trips per life, for them it is not a question of open to all winds. Because the right also intends to confront the “left-wing ecologists” on the terrain of solutions. They remain resolutely committed against an “ecology of degrowth” which they consider irrational and loaded with “irresponsible” constraints. Pragmatic ecology versus ideological ecology in short, while supporting the idea of ​​a necessary revolution on the right to open new debates, shake up the certainties of the right, explore new spaces of reflection beyond the usual comfort zones but without abandon its fundamentals.

Finally, Tuesday evening, The Republicans wanted to lay the first stone of a new ambition. The president of the Republicans Eric Ciotti, motivated by the urgent need for the right to establish itself as a party of government and reforms, was there to chart a course. Its new vice-president in charge of the project, Emmanuelle Mignon, was also present. In front of an audience of around 300 supporters, in a new format, Les Républicains urged the explorers of the right to find new ways of passage on the seas of an ecology that is “responsible and ambitious but bearable, both economically and economically. on the social plan".

In his closing speech, Eric Ciotti recognized the urgency of “tomorrow’s fights that we can no longer lose.” Supporter of a model of co-prosperity uniting man and nature, the leader of the right also underlined the international dimension of a problem which he proposes to approach with “confidence”. He spoke of an ecology of reality, freedom and growth. Vast project for Les Républicains four years before the presidential election.