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Raging, radical and ready for change: France’s angry green women are an inspiration to us all

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July 15, 2024

Raging, radical and ready for change: France’s angry green women are an inspiration to us all

Source: Guardian

"I really like these angry green women,” a French friend said recently, as the assembly elections approached. It’s a funny phrase, redolent of She-Hulk, but I knew exactly what – and whom – she meant.

It’s impossible to overstate my crush on Marine Tondelier, the French Green party leader. Tondelier has been a revelation in the past few feverish, fretful weeks; she has cut through French politics like a hot knife through butter. Forensically, forcefully articulate and unafraid to show her emotions, she is “cash”, as the French say – frank, funny and down-to-earth.

Tondelier comes across as a real (albeit brilliant) person, not a cautiously on-message robot. She talks, to paraphrase the musical Hamilton, like she is running out of time. I have watched endless clips of her verbally demolishing opponents with off-the-cuff zingers, relished her clinically detailing of the worst National Rally candidates and been moved by her obvious distress when a centre-right politician refused to commit his party to blocking the far right.

Read here the full article published by the Guardian on 14 July 2024.

Image by Guardian

 

Region
Author
Emma Beddington
Focus areas

"I really like these angry green women,” a French friend said recently, as the assembly elections approached. It’s a funny phrase, redolent of She-Hulk, but I knew exactly what – and whom – she meant.

It’s impossible to overstate my crush on Marine Tondelier, the French Green party leader. Tondelier has been a revelation in the past few feverish, fretful weeks; she has cut through French politics like a hot knife through butter. Forensically, forcefully articulate and unafraid to show her emotions, she is “cash”, as the French say – frank, funny and down-to-earth.

Tondelier comes across as a real (albeit brilliant) person, not a cautiously on-message robot. She talks, to paraphrase the musical Hamilton, like she is running out of time. I have watched endless clips of her verbally demolishing opponents with off-the-cuff zingers, relished her clinically detailing of the worst National Rally candidates and been moved by her obvious distress when a centre-right politician refused to commit his party to blocking the far right.

Read here the full article published by the Guardian on 14 July 2024.

Image by Guardian

 

Region
Author
Emma Beddington
Focus areas