After two editions canceled due to Covid-19, the public was there for the return of the Libramont fair. The atmosphere was friendly, many visitors. It is therefore in peace that we exchanged with the Walloon Minister of the Environment. It was necessary because Céline Tellier is an atypical political personality in more ways than one. Already, she does not have a card from the Ecolo party, which she has represented in the Walloon government for almost three years: “I really like this sort of special status” she smiles. Appointed minister in 2019, she is not sure of returning in 2024. Coming from civil society – she headed Inter-Environnement Wallonie – she admits, all the same, having moved resolutely into the political field. Why go from expert (she has a doctorate in social sciences) in the voluntary sector to minister of the Walloon government? The minister answers in this podcast, just as she raises the important question of legitimacy. For the Brabançonne, there is no that the legitimacy of the ballot box. Moreover, the question of a passage through the “elections” box in two years is still pending. His political career might therefore stop in 2024…
Céline Tellier regrets the unenviable status of political leaders: “We may have the same speech between September 11, on the set of QR [où elle intervenait en tant que secrétaire générale d’Inter-Environnement Wallonie] and on the 13th when I take the oath, I have the same environmental speech. But I am cataloged as ‘politics’ and therefore ‘all rotten’, all this anti-political discourse which is very present. It hit me hard when I entered politics..”
The one who explains not to do politics “to make tapestry“very quickly made his mark in the Walloon political game: his regular spats with Willy Borsus are a “classic” of the councils of Walloon ministers. This fierce ecologist insists: when we talk regarding reforms like the one on car taxation, we are talking, according to her, of decisions “apps” in the face of the importance of climate change: “Go tell the people who have been affected, who have lost their homes, or their families or loved ones, that no, we’re not going to do anything, because we mightn’t change our lifestyles a little bit, I find that in fact, it’s indecent.”
She may only make a whirlwind stint in politics. But Céline Tellier has decided that her passage will leave traces. Tails: in the fall, 1.3 million new trees will have been planted in Wallonia. Side face: she hopes that all the budgets released thanks to the recovery plan, all the skills acquired during these years, will bud from Tournai to Arlon.