Activists of the Ecologists party voted 74% this weekend in favor of a reform of the movement's statutes intended to simplify an organization considered complex, Marine Tondelier, its national secretary, announced on Monday March 18. To be validated, it had to receive at least 66% of the votes.
The party has often been the subject of mockery for its opaque debates and infighting, due to the presence of motions representing the party's different sensibilities. According to the new statutes, there will only be one motion at the time of the congress, with contributions by amendments. The national secretary will now be elected by a two-round single-member majority vote, and no longer designated by elected representatives from the various motions.
“One of the big requests was not to eliminate, but to reduce the weight of national motions in decisions and, in particular, in the question of external designations. So there, we have a system which means that from now on the national secretary and the national executive secretariat will be elected directly by the members,” explained François Thiollet, deputy national secretary of the party, at a press conference.
Goal: one million supporters
Internally, voices were raised to ask for the vote to be postponed, arguing that there was little time given to be able to examine these new statutes in detail. Some activists also noted that "internal pluralism will be made more difficult by the new rules", while others were concerned about the new method of designating the national secretary, similar according to them to "a plebiscitary vote", contrary to " values and principles that [they] plan to apply [if they] come to power.”
“Obviously, not everyone was 100% on board with these new statutes and, you know what? It's normal. When I see the internal life of the other parties, I think that, somewhere, at The Greens, things are going rather very well,” said Marine Tondelier.
This reform of the statutes is part of the “general states of ecology”, launched in February 2023 by the national secretary, which led in October to the launch of the broader movement called “Les Ecologists”, intended to replace Europe Ecology-The Greens. The stated objective is to bring together a million supporters, who will have a different status from party members. There are currently 170,000 of them, said Marine Tondelier.
