Is the EELV success a sign of a greater environmental awareness in France?
Not necessarily; prior high-profile green issues, like the Notre-Dame Landes Airport, were localized at best and did not significantly affect national trends. It should be noted that voters are much happier about their local politicians than national ones and there is a lot of favorite son/daughter/neighbor factors in play and isn't always knee-jerk finger like in other elections. Many of the Greens' competitors have weak local parties and/or lack alliances plus left-wing parties (minus Melenchon + friends) are almost always going to have an easier time allying with each other vs Macron, Le Pen and everyone else in between. However, the Greens were logical benefactor of Macron's fall on the left due to the shadow of Melenchon and Hollande.
