One to watch - 18/05/2009

Francis Lalanne, France

One of France's most famous crooners is back for the European campaign, running for the environmental alliance which he stood for in last year's parliamentary elections. Francis Lalanne, sometimes referred to as the Jean-Claude Van Damme of Green politics, sees himself as something of a philosopher manqué, pronouncing confidently on a variety of subjects with often hilariously unintentional results.

But since he scored 3.5 per cent of the votes in the domestic poll, people have had to start taking him seriously, and he has now a real chance of being elected for the Alliance of Independent Ecologists in the south-east, which includes the French Riviera.

Lalanne is famous for such pearls of wisdom as, "Let's form an independent resistance against oppression. Let's bark!" Or, "In order to really modify our consciousness, it's a little of the chicken that makes the egg and that egg that makes the chicken. Above all the structures have to be ready for it."

He also defines himself as a citizen of the world, and he has written at least one "Green song", Depolluting the Planet. The story of his involvement in environmental politics is one worthy of an idiot savant. "I woke up one morning realising that having ideas don't serve anyone if you don't put them into practice." Lalanne's peculiar theories are often ridiculed by the French media. His latest TV appearance turned into a massive row with a journalist who accused him of being utterly deluded. But just like the singer says himself: "Even a clown has the right to have ideas."

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