France’s The Greens party has kicked off its campaign for the European elections next year in an unconventional way – through “booty therapy”.
At the launch event on December 2, activists were urged by The Greens election-list leader MEP Marie Toussaint to “listen to the pulsations of life” and shake their behinds to that rhythm.
Rather than a lecture on biodiversity or climate change, for example, for about 20 minutes attendees were treated to three scantily clad females dancing on stage, instructing them on how to “twerk”.
Party leader Martine Tondelier said of booty therapy: “This concept is for everyone: women, men, and gender minorities. And, of course, for all buttocks: small, medium, large, flat, rounded … Maybe that bothers some people, too, but that’s the way it is!”
Despite the enthusiasm of the performers, the crowd seemed somewhat hesitant to learn how to shake their rear ends at first but soon a group of mainly party executives joined in.
The ladies then gave a speech on the power of booty therapy, which is also the name of their dance troupe. They explained how such dancing was a way to “retake the public space, with all our different bodies”.
During the show, one of the performers asked the audience to imitate a chicken. “The chicken has the flu and therefore has a high fever,” she said, inviting the spectators to “shake in all directions” accordingly.
Video’s of the twerking lessons have gone viral in France.
The eyebrow-raising event is seen by many as a stunt by Toussaint, who hosted the meeting, designed to gain publicity.
At the meeting, she invited activists to “listen to the pulsations of life” to “understand that life is a fragile miracle, ultimately held together by the fluttering of a bee’s wings”.
Others said the stage event more “resembled a low-quality, vulgar pop music video than in a reflection on saving the planet”.
“There is such a gap between the panicked speeches they make about climate and this ‘booty therapy’ that we don’t understand. Reality seems to elude them.”
Tondelier said there were a lot of “haters who clearly don’t understand anything about ‘booty therapy’”.
On X, she explained: “Booty therapy is a concept created by Maïmouna Coulibaly. It combines sport, dance and personal development.
“Booty therapy is about taking responsibility for yourself as you are, accepting your physical appearance, taking responsibility for your history, understanding your emotions and releasing them in a healthy, safe space surrounded by caring people.
“On this basis, people can release their emotions and heal some of their traumas and trials through group exercises,” she said.
The Greens party will run its election bid on their own, as the left-wing NUPES alliance of which it was a part started to splinter amid continuous infighting.
That was made worse when the far-left La France Insoumise party backed Palestine rather than Israel after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks.
Now being a standalone outfit, The Greens regards the European elections in June 2024 as pivotal, but the latest polls put it behind the 13.5 per cent achieved in 2019.
