Yannick Jadot calls for a “social-ecologist candidacy”

Guest of “4 Vérités” on France 2, Monday November 3, Yannick Jadot addressed the thorny issue of the budget. The environmentalist senator from Paris also affirmed that he will not be a candidate in the 2027 presidential election.

This text corresponds to part of the transcription of the interview above. Click on the video to watch it in full.

Gilles Bornstein: The week promises to be decisive for budgets. Is government censorship an option for you?

Yannick Jadot: This is an option, but as a last resort. I think that today there is a parliamentary negotiation. I think that the method today is not the right one, that is to say to operate only by amendment. We can clearly see that the budget can go in absolutely any direction. I think that we need, in the National Assembly, between the left bloc and the central bloc, a much more structured negotiation around the major balances. What do we want to do with this budget? We regularly talk about the hospital, it’s a purge with this budget. What are we doing to ensure that people in France are cared for? The first concern of French people is housing. Collapse of social housing construction, collapse of the thermal renovation budget. All of this is very bad for purchasing power and employment.

Do you validate the approach of the socialists, which is to negotiate?

I was more in favor of not voting for censure, the first vote. From the moment we give Parliament the opportunity to try to find compromises, this is what we have been defending since July 2024, let us try to demonstrate it. Afterwards, you see clearly that there is a difficulty. The central bloc, in the Assembly, says: “We, as long as we do not have instructions from Prime Minister Lecornu, we cannot negotiate.” And Lecornu said: “It must happen in the Assembly.” So there is a hiatus within the central block which means that it does not work. And we will not be able to have good budgets that can be voted on by anyone if we operate by amendment. So, there must be a global negotiation on balances: how do we protect the working classes and the middle classes? How do we invest against climate change, for housing, for health and how at the same time do we reduce the deficit?

In a latest poll published this weekend, Raphaël Glucksmann today seems to be the only one who can compete with Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the left. Should the entire non-LFI left get behind him?

My position is that Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s relationship with democracy is so degraded that we can no longer walk with him. We need a social-ecological application. So, it’s Raphaël Glucksmann, it’s Marine Tondelier, it’s François Ruffin and others. I applied in 2022, you have to prepare for it. It is an extremely difficult exercise, a presidential election. I want to contribute to this social-ecologist candidacy and ensure that it is in the second round of the presidential election.

Could this be you?

No, today, I am not a candidate for the presidential election.

Marine Tondelier has declared her candidacy. Not sure you support her?

Marine Tondelier has many qualities, undoubtedly. She does the job for ecology, she does the job for the party. But I have a political line problem with his candidacy. Today, she wants to bring together from Jean-Luc Mélenchon to Raphaël Glucksmann, that will not exist. We are deluding voters, so at some point we are going to disappoint them. And above all, it prevents us from working quickly on a social-ecological application. And you will see that as there is no irreconcilable electorate on the left, a good social-ecological candidacy will benefit from the useful vote and could be in the second round. This is the only left-wing candidacy that can beat Jordan Bardella or Marine Le Pen in the second round.

Click on the video to watch the interview in full.