ActuallySeveral tens of thousands of people marched across France to try to put climate at the center of the presidential debate.
The scene is unlikely and is set in the climate march “Look up” – referring to the film “Don’t look up”, a metaphor for the climate crisis, released in 2021 on the Netlix platform -, in Paris between the square of the Nation and that of the Republic, Saturday 12 March. A few meters from each other, a dozen pro-nuclear activists who have gathered behind the banner parade “Nuclear for the climate”, and the anti-atomic activists of the Réseau Sortir du Nucléaire. Two radically opposite options and the same urgency shown, that of the climate, much to the dismay of almost the entire event. “We are not very well seen, but our presence is legitimate, believes Florent Le Goux, 39, activist of the association “Voices of nuclear energy”, and salaried geologist in Orano (ex-Areva). Nuclear has its rightful place to come from fossil fuels. †
Everywhere the looks are incredulous, even suspicious. However, this antinomy reveals the diversity of the protesters who were present in the Paris procession. 32,800 people according to the organisers, 80,000 in all of France, of which 8,000 in Lyon, 2,000 in Grenoble and 1,800 in Nantes. Police did not release turnout figures early Saturday evening.
A success for the organizers, while the audience was more than modest in the beginning. Analyzes explaining a lesser success – the previous processions, in March and May 2021, and during the major demonstrations of 2018 and 2019, with the “effect” Greta Thunberg, had tens of thousands of participants – mention the news about the war in Ukraine , the bad again, a potential discouragement as well. “We feel very small in the face of the great movements of history, the pandemic, the war, all this affects us, there is fatigue, explains Cyril Dion, the filmmaker who deals with the ecological struggle, present in the procession. The distributors in the cinema tell me: “people don’t want scary topics, they want to be entertained”. †
‘Only 2.7% of the media debate’
However, the procession quickly expanded. And the colors are mixed, the green of Friends of the Earth or Greenpeace, the red of Attac, the orange of L214 or even the mauve of the Animalist Party, which proclaims “And everyone hates hunters!” †† And humor, ever present in these processions, still marks the banners that protesters of all ages wave. to traditional “Ecology without class struggle is gardening” Where “Less Rich, More Hives”have been added “Less Bayer, more beers”Where “We’ll talk about when”following this other sign ‘Only 2.7% of the media debate’ who denounces the lack of echo of the climate problem in the election campaign.
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