Moroccan Mounir Satouri elected as French MEP

Rabat – Mounir Satouri will be one of four new Green party representatives in France, part of a larger Green wave elected into the 2019 European Parliament.

Born in Morocco, Satouri left the country when he was 16 and settled in the French region Ile-de-France. He will represent the 78th department, Yvelines, in the European Parliament for the next five years.

Satouri joined France’s green party (EELV) in 2001 and has remained active since then as a regional representative.

Satouri hoped to be elected to the European parliament, but cared more about the success of his party in elections overall, he told French news outlet, Le Parisien.

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EELV made larger gains than polls predicted, ultimately coming in as the third largest party with 13.5 percent of votes. France’s far-right group, the National Rally (RN) has the majority by less than a point over President Emmanuel Macron’s party La Republique en Marche (LREM), according to preliminary results.

The surprising growth of the Green party was a recurring trend across EU members and is now the fourth largest voting bloc in parliament overall.

Satouri said one of his goals is to renegotiate the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to help farmers move towards cleaner agriculture.

The high voter turnout and recent citizen protests confirms the importance of environmental issues for citizens, Satouri said to Le Parisien.