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People watch French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand's movie 'Home' on giant screens in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on June 5, 2009. (Pierre Verdy/AFP/Getty Images)
PARIS—Several French politicians have bitterly accused a green-awareness movie and the timing of its showing for influencing the local results of European elections in the country.
The green coalition’s Europe Ecologie made stirring gains on the June 7 elections by taking 16.3 percent of French votes, tying it with the Socialist for the second largest French political force in the European Parliament. It will have the same number of MP’s as the French Socialist Party.
On June 5, two days before the election, French National Television France 2 aired the movie “Home” by world-renowned photographer and environmental activist Yann Arthus-Bertrand. That evening, 8.3 million French, representing one third of all French viewers, watched the movie, which was presented as an ode to life.
“I’d like to say that we are not fools on this manipulation,” stated Jean-Marie Le Pen, vice-president of the far-right Front National, in the Le Monde newspaper. “I think all of this has been well thought out, precisely to push Europe Ecologie.”
Yann Arthus-Bertrand and the movie producers, however, explained that the date of the movie’s airing— the World Environment Day—was decided more than 2 years ago, before the schedule of the European Elections was known.
“I don’t understand … how there can be the slightest problem [about the movie],” French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the media. “If there is one duty our national TV should assume, it is to make clear the environmental challenges we face”
The movie shoots a variety of landscapes from the sky and tells the story of climate change. Meant to display the beauty of Earth and to show how human industrial activity is posing a serious threat to its survival, “Home” has been compared to “An Inconvenient Truth” by former US vice-president Al Gore.
“Home” is now playing in theaters around the world well as on Youtube. Watching it will certainly be a worthwhile occupation for the big losers of the June 7th vote.
