French Green presidential hopeful "comfortable" with fall in economic growth

Former ecology and environment minister Delphine Batho has thrown her hat into the ring ahead of September's primary elections to choose a Green candidate for the French presidential elections in May 2022.

The president of Génération Ecologie, who served briefly as ecology and energy minister under President François Hollande before being sacked, told BFMTV on Monday that she accepted that her brand of green politics would inevitably cause a drop in economic growth.

Batho said that instead ecological priorities should govern the economic market and that she was comfortable with a fall in growth favouring instead a balance between human needs and what is necessary to preserve living things.

“I am a candidate for the primaries because protecting the French people from global warming, and the effects and impact of the destruction of nature is now a question of national security," she said.

She said her aim was to prepare ecologists for the exercise of power, and to persuade the French people to opt for happiness and ecology.

"This time, a green candidate could make it to the second round presidential run off if they give themselves the means, if they really work on their credibility, on the business of government," she added.

Green MEP Yannick Jadot has declared his candidature as has as the mayor of Grenoble, Eric Piolle.

Former deputy leader of the EELV party Sandrine Rousseau and Jean-Marc Governatori, co-president of Cap Ecologie will also stand.