Political parties: the name strategy

A forest full of acronyms – EELV – until now made its identification difficult. From now on, the Greens party wants to display color, as clear as a well-mown lawn: The Ecologists. This is the new name favored by the majority of its members.

This practice of changing names is recurrent in political parties. At the turn of our century, the complex acronyms that had influenced French political life for decades gradually disappeared. We of course think of the FN becoming RN, but also of the RPR, renamed UMP then LR. Or at En Marche! renamed La République en Marche, in 2017, a year after its creation, then Renaissance in 2022. The parties thus hope to thwart traditional classifications – republican, socialists, etc. – often a cause of discredit in the eyes of voters.

But there is more: behind this change of name, there is a whole process of refoundation at work – very often after an electoral failure – which pushes for a new look to erase the errors of the past and create a new dynamic. We do not skimp on resources, even if they have a significant financial cost: general meetings, citizens’ conferences, deployment of a new communication arsenal… The choice of the new name, accompanied by a logo, crowns the metamorphosis: it must constitute the brand image of the movement thus redefined, summarizing its identity. Thanks to it, we hope, citizens of all sides will feel challenged by the ideas put forward.

By opting for a generic and easy-to-grasp name, the environmentalist party hopes to rally a million members by the 2027 presidential election. Except that barely launched, the new name is already a source of controversy: an independent citizens’ association, also called Les Écologues and owner of the name since its creation in 2010, threatens to file a complaint if the Greens persist in their intention. Keeping it simple sometimes turns out to be complicated.