Editing The Greens (France) (section)

==History==

===Early years===
Since 1974, the environmentalist movement has been a permanent feature of the French political scene, contesting every election: municipal, national & European.

In the years following Dumont's challenge for the presidency, and prior to the formal confirmation of les Verts as political party, environmentalists contested elections under such banners as ''Ecology 78'', ''Ecology Europe'' and ''Ecology Today''. When, in 1982, ''the Ecologist Party'' merged with ''the Ecologist Confederation'', les Verts were born. Under the ideological guidance of [[Antoine Waechter]], the party in 1986 signalled a break with the traditional divide in French politics, declaring that environmental politics could not be "married" to either the left or the right (which gave rise to its famous slogan "ni droite, ni gauche" – "neither right, nor left"). Antoine Waechter ran in the [[1988 French presidential election|1988 presidential elections]], capturing 1,150,000 ballots (or 3.8%) in the first round of voting. But the major breakthrough came the following year when – again under the leadership of Waechter – the Greens polled 10.6% in the European parliamentary elections.

However, the party faced with another ecologist party: [[Ecology Generation]] led by [[Brice Lalonde]], environment minister of President [[François Mitterrand]] and allied with the [[Socialist Party (France)|Socialist Party]] (PS). In this, if the ecologist parties benefited from the electoral decline of the PS in the beginning of the 1990s, the Greens competed for the leadership of the French ecologist movement. In the [[1992 French regional elections|1992 regional elections]], the Greens obtained 6.8% of votes and the presidency of [[Nord-Pas-de-Calais]] region. The next year, it scored 4.1% in the [[1993 French legislative election|legislative election]] while all of the ecologist votes represented 11%. But, without political allies in the second round, they failed to gain a parliamentary seat.

===Participation in government===
Waechter's influence was called into question in 1994 when the Greens decided to break with his policy of non-alignment, instead deciding to adopt a markedly left-wing stance. The move prompted Waechter to leave the Greens. He went on to found the [[Independent Ecological Movement]]. In the following presidential election of 1995, [[Dominique Voynet]] polled a modest 3.8% but, in due to the marginalisation of [[Ecology Generation]], the Greens captured the leadership into the family of the French [[political ecology]].

Component of [[Plural Left]] coalition, the Greens obtained for the first time a parliamentary representation in [[1997 French legislative election|1997]]. [[Dominique Voynet]] was to lead the party into government for the first time, joining [[Lionel Jospin]]'s [[Socialist Party (France)|Socialist Party]] (PS) and the [[French Communist Party|Communist Party]] (PCF). Voynet was rewarded with the cabinet position of Minister for the Environment and Regional Planning, before being replaced by [[Yves Cochet]] in 2001.

[[Daniel Cohn-Bendit]] (or "Danny the Red"), a leader of the [[May 1968 in France|1968 student uprising]], spearheaded the party's [[1999 European Parliament election in France|1999 European campaign]], obtaining 9.7% of votes cast, enough to return seven deputies to [[Strasbourg]].

[[Alain Lipietz]] was first selected to represent the Greens in the [[2002 French presidential election|2002 presidential elections]] but his public outings proved awkward and he was soon replaced by [[Noël Mamère]] who had initially lost the [[Partisan primary|primary election]]s. Mamère's 5.25% represents the strongest Green challenge for the presidency to date. However, the legislative elections were a major disappointment: with just 4.51% of votes cast nationally, the Greens’ representation fell from six to just three deputies (out of a total of 577) in the [[French National Assembly|National Assembly]].

===Opposition and merger===
Following the return to opposition benches in 2002, [[Gilles Lemaire]] assumed the position of national secretary. His tenure is marked by a period of internal strife in the party. Lemaire was in turn replaced by [[Yann Wehrling]], who seemingly united a majority of the membership under a text outlining the future direction that the party hoped to pursue. He was succeeded by [[Cécile Duflot]] in 2006, who was the party's youngest National Secretary at the age of 31. She announced her resignation in May 2012 after being appointed to the new cabinet appointed by President [[François Hollande]].

Les Verts had six [[Member of the European Parliament|MEPs]] elected in the 2004 European Election with 8.43% of the vote.

In the hugely divisive 2005 referendum on the [[European Constitution]], the Greens campaigned for a Yes vote.

In the [[2007 French presidential election]], les Verts nominated [[Dominique Voynet]]. Her low score of 1.57% in the first round was the party's worst electoral result, and the French ecologist's worst showing since [[René Dumont]] in the [[1974 French presidential election|1974]]. The party refused an electoral deal with the [[Socialist Party (France)|Socialists]] for the [[2007 French legislative election|June legislative election]]. However, the three Green incumbents, [[Noël Mamère]], [[Yves Cochet]], and [[Martine Billard]] had no PS opposition in their respective constituencies. While the Green's vote share was down from 2002, it won a fourth seat in [[Nantes]] where [[François de Rugy]] defeated a conservative UMP incumbent. The Greens now had four seats in the Assembly and sat with the [[French Communist Party|PCF]] in the [[Democratic and Republican Left]] group.

In the [[2009 European Parliament election in France|2009 European Parliament election]], the party was an integral part of the [[Europe Écologie]] coalition, led by [[Daniel Cohn-Bendit]], which gained 8 seats for a total of 14 on a 16.3% of the vote. Since November 2010, it merged with the coalition to become [[Europe Ecology – The Greens]].