How France’s youngest green mayor wants to transform her city

 

How France’s youngest green mayor wants to transform her city

 

Léonore Moncond’huy is part of a green wave of local politicians who hope to upend French politics.

 

By LOUISE GUILLOT 8/18/20, 3:50 PM CET Updated 8/21/20, 4:41 AM CET

https://www.politico.eu/article/france-youngest-green-mayor-leonore-moncondhuy/

 

POITIERS, France — Poitiers is known for its rich medieval history, its bell towers, the Futuroscope theme park and now for electing France’s youngest green mayor.

 

Léonore Moncond’huy, a 30-year-old member of the green Europe Ecologie-Les Verts party, in June beat previous Socialist Mayor Alain Claeys, who had run the city for a dozen years. Moncond’huy built her campaign on a promise to radically change her city's approach to economic growth and the environment.

 

She's part of a broader green wave that swept through cities including Strasbourg, Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux in France's local elections.

 

Just two months after taking office, Moncond’huy is already upending Poitiers' priorities.

 

One of her first decisions was to put on hold the construction of a new building on the city’s riverbank because it didn’t include sustainability standards. It's part of a vision to halt urban sprawl and to protect farmland.

 

Fired up by that victory, Moncond’huy wants to green the municipality’s public procurement to avoid non-reusable and non-recyclable products.

 

“My predecessor used to say that part of the [municipality’s] investment should be reserved for ecology, but for me it doesn't make sense because all investments must incorporate the ecological dimension,” Moncond’huy said.

 

Sitting in her high-ceilinged office with stained-glass windows in the 19th-century neo-renaissance city hall, she explained that “ecology needs to be taken into account in all the municipality's policies.”

 

Moncond’huy led an electoral list called Poitiers Collectif made up of people from different political backgrounds as well as those who were apolitical in a bid to revamp local politics.

 

That approach hit a chord in a country where environmental priorities are increasingly important. The administration of President Emmanuel Macron has committed to cutting the share of nuclear from 75 percent of power production to only 50 percent. The country's coronavirus recovery program also has a green tint. But those efforts aren't enough for people who see climate and the environment as top priorities.

 

 

“I was surprised at how clear-cut the victory was,” Moncond’huy said. Despite a low turnout, she won 42.8 percent of the vote while Claeys took 35.6 percent and Macron’s La République En Marche candidate Anthony Brottier got 21.6 percent.

 

Fired up by that victory, Moncond’huy wants to green the municipality’s public procurement to avoid non-reusable and non-recyclable products, improve waste management, reduce water consumption, cut air pollution, restore biodiversity and create a method to measure the carbon impact of the municipality’s actions and how much it contributes to reducing CO2 emissions. She's also keen to apply some of the ideas from the country's experiment in direct democracy, the citizens' climate convention. "I appreciate the radical nature of these measures, which shows that society is ready for radical change," she said.

 

“Leading by example is for us the first lever to create a ripple effect among citizens and businesses,” Moncond’huy said, “to show it’s possible.”

 

She also plans a U-turn from her predecessor’s economic development policy, which was aimed at attracting outside investors to the city of 90,000. Instead, she's counting on empowering local businesses and creating a more circular economy.

 

Green-wave skeptics

Opposition parties are aghast.

 

"It's important to have a local economy, a local circular economy, but that doesn't mean it can't be attractive,” Brottier said, adding that for him "the role of the local authority is to defend the attractiveness of its territory so that tomorrow other companies come” to create jobs. The Socialists share a similar vision.

 

During the campaign, Brottier argued that Moncond’huy’s program was aimed at slashing the city's growth. "If we are not able to attract new jobs from the private sector, we risk generating degrowth,” he said.

 

Moncond’huy has already started networking with other like-minded mayors in an effort to make the green wave a permanent feature of French politics.

 

 

Moncond’huy has already started networking with other like-minded mayors | Guillaume Souvant/AFP via Getty Images

 

But François Blanchard, a municipal councilor with former mayor Claeys, called the movement a “one-shot event.”

 

“I don’t believe that the green wave will last,” he said.

 

Blanchard attributed Moncond'huy’s victory to “a marketing operation” and the larger crisis of the democratic representative system.

 

“Poitiers Collectif understood that communication prevails over finding solutions,” Blanchard said, calling Moncond'huy’s program “too vague.”

 

Still, Blanchard regretted that the former administration hadn't done more to decarbonize the city’s transportation system by developing cycling lanes. He argued that Claeys had pursued green policies by investing in building renovation and sustainable heating systems, but that those efforts were not "readable” by voters.

 

Brottier, however, did recognize that the green challengers are bringing something new to local politics.

 

"There was a real willingness to change and a fatigue with the existing team,” Brottier said.