Yann Wehrling

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Yann Wehrling at head office of French Green Party, March 2006

Yann Wehrling and Bertrand Delanoë, Gay Pride at Paris en France, June 2005

Yann Wehrling (born 3 July 1971 in Strasbourg, France) is an illustrator, French politician and former leader of the political party The Greens.

[edit] Life

In 1988 he joined the environmental movement "France Nature Environnement" and in the following year joined The Greens. From 1992 to 1994 he was the National Secretary of "EcoloJ", a youth environmental organisation. After completing his studies of fine arts in Strasbourg in 1994, he worked as an illustrator in publishing, for the French-German television channel Arte, and for the Irish channel TnaG. He then became a spokesman for The Greens. In January 2005 he was elected the National Secretary of The Greens with 62% of the vote, coming after long and protracted negotiations. In December 2006 Cécile Duflot succeeded him to the post.

He belongs to the environmentalist wing of the party, named "Pôle Écolo" (the Eco-Pole) ou "Écolo" (Eco). He works with fellow Green politicians in the European Parliament.

He is a specialist in wild fauna, and an expert on the reintroduction of the lynx into the Vosges forest.

[edit] Media action

On 22 March 2005, for the World Day for Water, he took a swim in the Seine river in Paris, along with three other members of the Executive College of the Greens. Their reason behind this action was to denounce pollution in French rivers and to urge the government to reexamine its environmental policy in this regard. French President Jacques Chirac had—in a sense—promised much the same thing in regard to the Seine river during time as mayor of Paris.