Marine Tondelier, environmentalist presidential candidate, gives birth to her second child

This is unprecedented in French political life. Marine Tondelier, Environmentalist presidential candidate, gave birth to her second child on September 18, in Lens in Pas-de-Calais. Little Léon was born just two days after his mother attended the meeting held at the Elysée between Emmanuel Macron and party leaders to discuss international conflicts and their consequences.

The first contender for the Elysée to have campaigned while pregnant, she told AFP this Wednesday, September 23, that the birth had gone "very well", adding that she was going to "work differently" for a while and "try to invent how to reconcile a presidential campaign and a newborn, whose health and well-being come first."

“We took advantage of the arrival of [our child] a little early to keep this beautiful news just for us for a few days,” she added on Instagram.

The candidate does not see herself “going on leave for four months”

Already the mother of a 7-year-old boy, Marine Tondelier has just been officially designated candidate for the Ecologists, following an extraordinary federal council of her party on Monday. It will remain so until the vote of environmentalist members scheduled for December 10 to 13, who will decide whether to maintain an independent candidacy or withdraw behind another left-wing candidate.

But she always said that even during the presidential campaign, this baby would be her priority, while emphasizing that she did not plan to “go for four months” on leave.

She must also participate this Wednesday in a video press conference to take stock of her presidential campaign, and discuss the Climate Marches planned for September 26 throughout France. If her health and that of the baby allow it, she plans to parade that day in Arras (Pas-de-Calais), she also indicated.

“A country at the height of a child”

When she announced her pregnancy at the end of March, she recounted her difficulties after a miscarriage and an unsuccessful PMA and IVF course. It was finally after putting her plans for a child on hold that she became pregnant.

The Ecologist intends to take advantage of the opportunity to defend two subjects that are close to his heart: reproductive health and “a country at the height of children”, with a series of measures for the protection and development of the youngest. Among its proposals, it wishes to guarantee during the first year after childbirth “a real physical, gynecological, sexual and psychological health pathway, with systematic identification of postpartum depression”, create a “public service for home support after birth” and build “a better paid parental leave, sufficiently long and including an individual non-transferable part for each parent”.

“A family policy cannot stop at the door of the maternity ward. After birth, no one should be left alone to face the care, exhaustion and burden of daily life,” she writes in her booklet on reproductive health.