“For me, emotions are a part of politics.” Marine Tondelier, A Girl’s Journey from the North.

We meet Marine Tondelier on Zoom, four days after the surprise victory of the left in the legislative elections. The EELV national secretary turns up in a T-shirt, “half pyjamas”, he says with a smile from his loft room at Greens HQ, 10^e neighborhood made available to him while he stays in Paris.

Rotating the camera 180° allows you to consider the area; double bed, file table, rear shower. Simple, basic. To his left a shelf on which we spot his now famous meadow green jacket Sesun bought second hand. His story? “Actually, it’s not new, I’ve always worn a green jacket, but when we opened the New People’s Front (NFP), we didn’t sleep for 4 days and 4 nights. And I certainly wasn’t going to shop. So I asked a trusted friend if he had time to find me a new one so I didn’t have to make it to the press conference followed by a family photo with me all worn out. He brought me three: the first did not fit, the second did not look good, as they say in the north, the third was very good.

Since then we’ve (pretty much) only talked about him. At the risk of losing the essence of the speech. “Environmentalists are starting to tell me that it is enough. Ecology is not only the green color of the blazer.

Child of Henin-Beaumont

It’s true, all we’ve been talking about in recent weeks is him. At 37, the National Environmentalist Secretary has become a media beast, scouring television and morning radio shows. Many articles have been written about him, who leads the Greens from 2022, presented as a center of a very fresh unification of the left. But it was an interview with France Inter on July 1 in which he tearfully expressed his outrage at Bruno Le Maire’s “anti-LFI stance” and his “cowardly and privileged behavior” (…). Above ground [et] lunar” that goes viral and makes it happen. Making her an emotion is a rare phenomenon for a woman in politics, rather a virtue than a sin. “For me, emotions are a part of politics. So if some individuals don’t want to show it, that’s their right, but voters don’t just vote for programs. They also vote with their feelings.”

In any case, Marine Tondelier is still having a hard time analyzing her sudden notoriety, but she realizes that she is being stopped on the street from now on. “They are always kind comments, often thank you. Even at Henin-Beaumont I received remarks such as: “Oh baby, we saw you on TV” by RN voters I know.

When you are born in Henin-Beaumont, you have 5 years less life than a Parisian.

Marine Tondelier

For Marine Tondelier, it all started there, in Henin-Beaumont, the town where she was born and raised. “It is an area that transmits very strong values,” he emphasizes. The Pas-de-Calais mining area still involves the exploitation of coal, and therefore men, women and children. And then also the environmental legacy and the associated social and economic difficulties.” Before summarizing, bitterly. “When you’re born in Henin-Beaumont, you haven’t done anything yet. But you already have 5 years less life than the Parisian.”

Click with Jose Bove

Unlike some of her classmates from working and disadvantaged families, Marine Tondelier is lucky to have been born well. The daughter of a dentist mother and doctor father learned about inequalities very early. “I remember getting report cards in first grade that were sorted by best to worst student. I got it right away, being a very good student. And I still remember very well who was the last one. I was only five years old, I remember saying to myself. “He will be the last in his whole life,” she says, having an intuition that the path of a little boy, from a less privileged environment than his, will be more. strewn with pitfalls.

What if politics changed the situation? Many years later, after a training course in hippocampus, Hennoise studied public administration in Lille. It’s 2009 and she’s in a Jose Bove meeting with Eva Jolie and Cécile Duflo. That’s where it clicked. “People were wearing T-shirts with messages, anti-GMO, pro-Palestine, etc. That spoke to me, especially coming from a region with a strong environmental and health impact. When I left this rally, I joined the Greens.” Among the Tondelis, no one was politicized until Marine. Of course, we talk about politics at the table, but nothing more, nothing less.

Determined, the budding activist first appeared on the municipal election list in Henin-Beaumont, despite her mother’s initial reluctance, worried that she would face the violence inherent in the political world. Year after year, Marine Tondelier faces the rise of the far right in her land. A fight that would become his hobby horse, like his fight for ecology and uncertainty. Here he again talks about the “heaviness of the legacy of the mining basin”. “It is a legacy that builds. It is even a “spine”, he emphasizes. “We know what peace or war means.”

Mother and Politics, “Rock and Roll Rhythm”

The birth of a son, the result of a love affair with her long-time partner (whom she met in the framework of her activist activities with the Greens, and whose name she prefers to keep silent), will not disturb her. A few months later, he will go to the Pas-de-Calais roundabout to meet the Yellow Vests with a baby in a pram to defend “popular ecology”. Because Marine Tondelier wants to explain everything to her little Joseph, who will enter the first grade in September. So that he understands his political commitment. And why, some days, he can’t pick her up from school.

There are moments with my son Joseph that I don’t want to miss

Marine Tondelier

She admits, however, that she didn’t hesitate to put her intense legislative campaign on hold for an evening to attend her son’s school fair. “Joseph is very important to me and there are moments I don’t want to miss. I try to accompany him on school trips, about once a semester. Obviously I want to be with him. I want to get to know his school friends, organize his birthday. Well… the basics.” A leading NFP figure embraces the “rock ‘n’ roll beat” of reconciling parenthood and politics anyway. Fortunately, she can count on the support of her partner, family, nanny and her team. “But I am aware that it is not easy for anyone. I often think about single moms or parents with weird schedules.”

(almost) normal woman

Today, Marine Tondelier brings people together. Moreover, some are already planning it in Matignon. This is the case of feminist activists with whom she shares the struggle for women’s rights. “In France, women make up 50% of the population, but they also make up 60% of the minimum wage and a 24% wage gap when working in the private sector. In short, the poorest people,” summarizes the leader of the Green Party, who worked on his topic. “My feminism is not so much creative as it is very pragmatic. In other words, there are concrete problems to which we must give concrete answers.

Is he himself interested in the post of prime minister? Marine Tondelier is not there yet. Since the left’s victory on Sunday, he has held meetings and told us he is campaigning internally to profile women. We will know no more. However, we note that he “misses” some activities. dancing, participating in trails, spending his evenings watching a political soap opera, reading “great classics” … Or even supporting the RC Lens team when his companion is hot. Supporter of OM.

In the meantime, fatigue accumulates, and Marine Tondelier will soon go on vacation. Going to Brittany, first to camp “to please Joseph”; then with his family, including nephews and nieces, “six children under six.” Not a very relaxing getaway after all.