Sandrine Rousseau: "The fight led by women is the only one that has never killed anyone"
Economist, teacher, researcher, environmental activist, politician, mother of 3 children: Sandrine Rousseau created a surprise by coming second in the environmental primary behind Yannick Jadot. This Tuesday, September 28, it is finally the "realistic" line of the MEP who wins with 51.03% of the votes cast, to represent the Europe Écologie Les Verts (EELV) party in the 2022 presidential election. September 19 , the one who was running for the first time to represent her party had qualified for the second round with a result very close (25.14%) to the favorite (27.7% of the vote). The two candidates or two visions of ecology: radicalism for the first, unity for the second. Interview with one of the three women, with Valérie Pécresse and Anne Hidalgo, to aim for the presidency of the Republic.
Lady Figaro. - Your program begins with your “Environmental Radicality” project. Your opponent, Yannick Jadot, has also described this radicalism as "dividing" and opposes his plan to unite it. Do you realize that you are scary?Sandrine Rousseau.- “Radical” comes from the word “root”, and the project that I am leading intends precisely to go to the root of things, of what is dysfunctional in the world and in France. My political project is to raise awareness about the urgency to act. This word shocks because no man or woman politician has claimed radicalism so far. I recognize that it can be scary, but we should rather be afraid of what will happen if we do not act. We humans of this century find ourselves in a historic moment. If we want to be responsible in the face of the environmental challenge and global warming, we will have to take our hands out of our pockets and make more than small adjustments. It is no longer enough to turn off the water while brushing your teeth. And it is no longer enough for electoral candidates to list ecological measures and compare which one offers the most.
Did your environmental activism come before feminist activism? How did the two come together? I entered activism through ecology, and I devoted myself exclusively to it for a long time. But my personal story has always linked me to feminism. First, I was born on March 8, in a family where there were only boys, and that built me enormously, very deeply. Also, the Baupin affair made me think a lot about the subject of women, it is this intellectual journey that led me to ecofeminism (the conjunction of feminist and ecological thoughts, editor's note). Everything became clear when I put down the word “predation”. This is what defines our society, both in our relationship to the environment, which is only considered as a source of profit, and in our relationship to women. In the 19th century, we first looked at them through their reproductive function, today we see them as bodies to take. Predation is at the heart of our social and economic organization. If we want to transform our society, we have to attack the root of the problem, and we come back again to radicalism.
In video, the trailer for "Bigger Than Us"
Are you a radical feminist? The word sounds different when associated with feminism than when it is attached to ecology . It refers to the idea of being anti-men, which I am not. What I want is equality and respect. What I say is perceived as radical, but it is the basis. There is an irrational fear around the fight led by women, although it is the only one that has never killed anyone.
Also read » Ecofeminism: "We are fighting for a world where women are no longer victims, but actors of change"
how to roleplay on tumblr? it seems fun
— Jo Sun Apr 13 13:11:28 +0000 2014
What ecofeminist measures will you take if you are elected? Ecofeminism is the philosophy of my project, it is found in all the measures that I carry. Reform working time to have more time for oneself, protect the most precarious, fight against violence, give status to nature… All lead to getting out of predation.
After the Baupin affair, you left the EELV party to devote yourself to your association En parle, dedicated to women victims of sexual violence. Why did you return to politics? I didn't know when or how I would return to politics one day. This became clear to me when Gérald Darmanin was appointed Minister of the Interior. When Emmanuel Macron was asked about this choice, and he replied by speaking of "man-to-man trust", I was shocked. I said to myself that we were not understood, not heard, and that we had to go back. To overthrow the power structure. I don't know if I'll make it this Tuesday, but even if I fail, something will grow out of what's going on right now.
You said that our society spends its time “taking, using and throwing away the bodies of women, of the most precarious and racialized”. This sentence caused a lot of talk, and shocked... This sentence is in line with what I was saying about our predatory society. People of color also pay the price. The bodies of African and Indochinese people have been tools in the birth of our economic system. Regarding women's bodies, you only have to see how, at the height of the Covid crisis, they were the ones who were mostly on the front line, taking care of others, while being the worst paid. It is still a large majority of women who are affected by precarious contracts and the lowest salaries. But we have seen that in a way, it is thanks to them that the country holds. We take their work, we use them, we wring them out and we throw them away. They come out with lousy pensions, without ever being valued in society. When I said that sentence, I was also thinking, of course, of sexual violence. When you rape a woman, you use her body and throw it away.
You call yourself “eco-anxious”, and one of the four major axes of your program is dedicated to future generations. How does being a mother of 3 influence this concern for the future? My children are between 16 and 22 years old and I don't know what world they will live in thirty years from now. Like any parent, I raised them with a lot of love, trying to arm them for life. But no matter how much I try to protect them from everything, the essential and fundamental danger is ecological. I am willing to reduce the comfort of my daily life to guarantee a better world for my children, and I think this is the big question facing members of my generation. We and our parents took advantage of this economic system, which was useful for a while but which we now need to change. Will we have the courage to do the right thing, even if it is uncomfortable? Eco-anxiety is neglected a lot, but a lot of people are worried about the future, and very few politicians dare to say they are anxious. In politics, we rather value the absence of emotions, apart from anger. I have no problem saying that I am eco-anxious. This poses a reality and explains why I am leading this fight.
In video, the ecological impact of the textile industry
You also claimed to belong to the "woke" ideology. To what extent? I did not claim it, I was stuck with this label. I don't know this ideology very well, I discovered it when I was called a "woke". I understood that to mean being aware of injustices. In this case, we should all be. What fascinates me is that to discredit what I wear, I am referred to a term that is supposed to scare. It's a way of not hearing what I'm saying.
"The only possible scenario"
Did you always know you were an activist? Is it something that we already feel as a child? I started to militate rather late. I was a master 1 student the first time I joined an activist organization. But when I was a child, I was already told that I was impertinent. It's funny because this word comes back today when people talk about me.
A woman President of the Republic, feminist and green, is this really a possible scenario today in France? It is the only possible scenario in the landscape of the left and ecology. We have to renew and modernize all that. Among the people who joined me, a large part were no longer going to vote, because people on the left and green people are abstaining. We dream of acting but we are paralyzed at the idea of not succeeding in doing so. It is very possible to win.
