Dominique Voynet trained as a doctor, specifically as an
anesthetist. During her studies in the late 1970s, she began participating in
environmental activism. She fought against the establishment of nuclear reactors in
Fessenheim and
Malville, and the
deforestation of the
Vosges area on behalf of the Belfort Association for the Protection of Nature. She also became a member of
Amnesty International and the
French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT). In her student years, she was a broadcaster for an independent radio station, "Radio ondes rouges" (Red Radio Waves). Her pacifist and environmental efforts continued with her membership of
Front de lutte antimilitariste (FLAM, "Front for the Antimilitarist Struggle") and
Friends of the Earth. Politics tempted her at this time, however the issues that were dear to her – social efforts, peace and
environmentalism – were not represented in France by any party at the time. For this reason, she became one of the founding members of
The Greens in France. In 1989 she was elected a
Member of the European Parliament. From 1992 to 1994 she was a member of the
conseil régional (regional council) of
Franche-Comté. She contested the
1995 presidential election which raised her public profile across all of France. In the first round of voting, she won 3.32% of the vote. She was elected
mayor of
Montreuil sous bois in the Seine Saint Denis on the second round of Municipal elections, 16 March 2008, defeating Jean Pierre Brard longstanding communist mayor since 1984. From 1997 to 2001 she was Minister of the Environment and Regional Planning under the
Lionel Jospin government, she resigned on 9 July 2001 and was replaced by
Yves Cochet. In 2004, she was elected senator for the Seine-Saint-Denis
département. Since the
2008 French municipal elections she is the elected mayor of
Montreuil. Dominique Voynet was designated the Green candidate for the
2007 presidential election on 19 July 2006. In the first round of the election, she garnered 576,666 votes (1.57%), failing to reach the second round. On 25 November 2013 Voynet announced she would not seek a second term as mayor of Montreuil, complaining of the "degradation of political life" in Montreuil and elsewhere. On 1 January 2020, Voynet became the Director of
Mayotte Regional Health Agency. == Political positions ==