Environment in the French Presidential elections – Part 1

In May 2007 the French people, me included, will vote for a new President for five years.

As I am French and very committed to environment, I decide from today on to write a series of articles on this topic and its place in the forthcoming elections. Every month until May, I will continue this series and show you how the environmental question is tackled by the main candidates.

The event this month is due to Mr. Nicolas Hulot, a TV producer and presenter of green documentaries that are widely seen in France ( the Ushuaïa series). As an ecologist by conviction, Mr. Hulot declared at some point that he could be a candidate to these elections. He wrote in the meantime a book on his program to be and demanded that other main candidates sign a treaty for a greener France.

Most candidates signed his treaty. This include three out of the four main political parties. The conservative party ( UMP ) signed it, as well as the Socialist Party (PS) and the UDF (center). The only main party which did not sign Mr. Hulot’s treaty is the National Front (FN – Far-right ).

These four parties total more than 85 % of vote intentions in the first voting round to be hold at the end of April. ( UMP : 35 % ; PS : 31 % ; FN : 13 % and UDF : 9 % ; Poll mentioned below. )

Mr. Hulot thus withdrew his candidacy this week. Nicolas Hulot is the president of a foundation for Nature and Man ( Fondation Nicolas Hulot pour la Nature et l’Homme ; website ) and more than 655,000 French signed his Challenge for Earth (Défi pour la Terre ; website ) in order to decrease greenhouse gases and energy use via various gestures.

According to a poll made for Le Figaro – LCI and RTL ( main newspaper, tv news channel and radio ), on January 17th , the environment defense is the 6th main topic of the elections according to French people. 27 percent of the people asked told that this very topic is important in the forthcoming elections.