Creating a “New Local Popular Front”: the call from environmentalist Manu Reynaud to LFI and the entire Montpellier left

Manu Reynaud préside le groupe écologiste (EELV, Génération écologiste et Parti animaliste) au sein de la majorité municipale. Midi Libre – T. J.

The environmentalist leader, second deputy mayor of the city of Montpellier, wants to unite a very broad left for 2026. Possible or utopian ?  Explanations.

You are launching the environmentalist caravan at the beginning of October. What is the principle⅓63~

I am launching the caravan for the union of the left and the ecologists in Montpellier. The idea is to reproduce the New Popular Front to work on it in the next local elections. We have just gone through a period, during the legislative elections, in which we were united. It corresponded to an expectation. We must address the intelligence of the people, think about the union and work on convergence projects. I think that there are many more things that bring us together than things that separate us.

Can you be more specific about your concept of a caravan of the left and the ecologists?

These are elected environmentalists and activists who will meet the residents of Montpellier from October 1 to December 21 to tell them to join the Environmentalists starting at 1 euro. We can broaden this majority. We did it in front of the Pavillon populaire before the second round of the legislative elections. There were the socialists Michaël Delafosse and Fanny Dombre-Coste, the LFI Sylvain Carrière, the environmentalist Jean-Louis Roumégas… This is how the left managed to have four deputies in Montpellier.

A whole context

A strong man of EELV (which became Les Ecologistes since 2023) in Montpellier during the 2020 municipal elections, Manu Reynaud, 2nd deputy mayor (who he has been close to since college), is the president of the environmentalist group on the municipal council, within which tensions have appeared over the course of the mandate, notably causing the departures of Coralie Mantion and François Vasquez.

Within the local EELV office, the spokespersons are Jean-Louis Roumégas and Julia Mignacca.

In short, a year and a half before the 2026 municipal elections, the work is big. Manu Reynaud presents his strategy and launches “his” caravan.

You are criticized for being the environmentalist guarantor of the mayor, Michaël Delafosse.

We are a component of the majority, which is also based on a political agreement in the second round of the municipal elections that allowed major advances in Montpellier, in terms of urban planning, mobility, food, etc. We have laid the foundations for significant changes in the distribution of public space, we have diametrically changed the logic. This city is changing in its mobility, in its relationships with public space. This is fundamental. We have protected one hundred hectares in Bouisses. In Malbosc, we are going to protect twenty hectares. We are a component of the majority. There are realities in terms of balance sheet.

What are your relations today with the local spokespersons of the Greens, including MP Roumégas?? Are you still divided??

There will be the AGM in November but, today, we are on different orientations but it is part of the ecosystem of environmentalists to have different positions. We debate and that allows us to move forward.
You want to unite a broad left beyond the environmentalists when you are not united among yourselves…
That's why we're doing this caravan. To be able to participate in the choices that will be made later, in 2026, we have to join now, in 2025. This debate must take place.

Why would LFI, when they came out on top in Montpellier in the presidential and European elections, join your proposal when Alenka Doulain, its representative, is the main opponent of the mayor??

I listened to Alenka Doulain at the metropolitan council a year ago, during which she listed the main points of divergence with the majority: the Com, Malbosc… Most of them can be overcome. I am taking the first step, which is to propose prioritizing convergences. In the 2026 municipal elections, we will be between two major national elections, the legislative and the presidential elections. At the local level, I refuse to allow the right to be given the gift of division from the left and the environmentalists. We have just experienced the legislative elections. It is seismic. I proposed a working group on the question of the RN and its vote. We came close to being a fortress of resistance for the whole of the south of France. Out of us and a little piece of Avignon and Marseille, from Nice to Perpignan all have RN deputies. There is no Montpellier and the rest of the world. It is out of the question to offer the city to the right for questions of division.

But whether it is the LR or the RN, the right in Montpellier does not exist politically.

The division of the left and the environmentalists could lead to risks of tipping over. In Montpellier, the declared right-wing candidate, Isabelle Perrein, has very clear-cut, interesting debates to lead. She wants to do away with cycle paths, build tunnels… Let's raise the points that could bring convergence to the left. We will spark debate on fundamental issues. It is not a question of label. This fight is that of the union of the left and the environmentalists. Montpellier has changed in this mandate. And above all it has changed direction: urban planning, mobility with free transport, pedestrianization… The next mandate will also be on mobility. We will have to continue what has been started.

In 2026, what will Manu Reynaud do? Will there remain the ecological guarantee of Michaël Delafosse…

Not the guarantee, the guarantee. The environmentalist guarantee is very different!

So will you be with Michaël Delafosse, on a list with your united party or on a third way even if it means dividing the environmentalists ?

I have never done anything but participate in collectives.

What is your collective today ?

I am part of the environmentalists. For twenty-three years. And within the environmentalists, we have a collective of elected officials and members. The debate is only just beginning. This is what the left and environmentalists will be working on until December.