Calm, serious, Marie Toussaint isn't the type to talk publicly about herself or her feelings. Behind her curly bangs, her thick glasses, and her unwavering smile, the young woman preserves her discretion. At 36, the future leader of Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV, France's Green party) for the June 2024 European elections is not straying from her lifelong battles: "the protection of the living and of social justice," she said, seated in a café across from Gare du Nord in Paris. On this summer afternoon, she had just arrived from Brussels, where she has been serving as a member of the European Parliament since 2019.

On July 10, to everyone's surprise, environmental activists chose her to lead the next European campaign, to the detriment of the Green party's former leader David Cormand, who will instead be second on the Green list. A good sport, he admitted to being "a little disappointed," but is full of praise for this "very strong, hard-working candidate," with good ties to NGOs. "She was the favorite. She's very much in line with the climate generation, the NGOs," he said. For her part, the newly-elected candidate praised the number two with whom she will be campaigning, and to whom "the party owes a lot."

A significant challenge awaits Toussaint. For months, members of La France Insoumise (LFI) have been pushing for the left to stand united in the European elections, under the banner of the NUPES coalition formed in 2022 (comprising LFI, the Greens, the Socialists, and the Communists). In June, Manuel Bompard, LFI coordinator and Jean-Luc Mélenchon's top lieutenant, had lunch with the leader of EELV, Marine Tondelier. He promised her that he would relentlessly keep the pressure on for such a coalition, a strategy that has led to heavy attacks against Tondelier from Mélenchon's party.

This pressure is now likely to fall on Toussaint, who is more favorable to the NUPES, and whose appointment was seen as "a signal" by LFI, who are pretending not to notice the latest vote within EELV: In July, 86% of party members were favorable to the strategy of an independent candidacy. For the battle ahead, Toussaint will have to transform herself, abandon her technocratic language, and sketch out a political vision. For now, she is reluctant to assert herself and break away from programmatic talking points. "She needs to seize this opportunity to show what she's got," said Noël Mamère, the Greens' former mentor. He added: "Marie Toussaint's handicap is that she has remained in the background too much."

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