France’s Greens pick Yannick Jadot to run for president

By Yusuf Ozcan

PARIS (AA) – France’s Greens party (EELV) announced Tuesday that it has chosen Yannick Jadot as their candidate for the country’s presidential election in April 2022.

Jadot, 54, is a former Greenpeace activist and a member of the European Parliament.

In the EELV’s second-round poll to determine its presidential candidate, Jadot narrowly beat his rival Sandrine Rousseau, the former vice president of the party, according to its Twitter account.

Jadot received 51.03% of the vote while Rousseau got 48.97%.

In a statement following the announcement of the results, Jadot said solutions to environmental problems should be found, and if he wins, he will prioritize the climate.

Twelve people have announced their candidacy for president, including the far-left France Unbowed party’s Jean-Luc Melenchon, far-right leader Marine Le Pen, the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier and Anne Hidalgo, the current mayor of Paris.

They will be challenging President Emmanuel Macron.

The first round of the election will be held on April 10. If any of the candidates fails to obtain an absolute majority, the two candidates with the most votes will compete in the second round on April 24.