WITH her impish smile and blonde pageboy haircut, Ms Dominique Voynet (38), the leader of the main French ecology party, Les Verts (the Greens), was a fresh face in the parliamentary election, writes Lara Marlowe.
In one of the more touching scenes of victory celebrations, Ms Voynet, who received 55.95 per cent of the vote in the eastern French Jura region of Dole, was shown on television hugging her young daughter and laughing, "We've won, we've won, we've won!"
Her party, which had never before been represented in parliament, had hoped to win three or four seats; the ecologists won eight seats.
Ms Voynet, who trained as a nurse and anaesthetist, is learning to be a hard nosed politician. She engineered the alliance with the Socialist Party that brought the Greens to the legislature.
Six of the eight ecologists are from her Greens party. Mr Noel Maniere, the articulate leader of Convergences Ecologie Solidarite who stood up to the extreme right National Front leaders in television debates, won another seat, as did Ms Michelle Rivasi, an antinuclear activist.
The ecology parties yesterday asked for at least one cabinet post in Mr Lionel Jospin's government.
Under Ms Voynet's leadership, the Greens have branched out from ecological issues to more political concerns. She has said the party wants "a new planet, a new mode of development ... a society where the quality of life, of health and the environment plays a bigger role than the markets".
French concern about pollution - particularly radiation from one of the world's most extensive nuclear power networks - has helped to raise the Greens' profile after a long period of public indifference.
French environmentalists have still not achieved the success of the Grunen in Germany, but with eight seats in parliament they will be able to influence legislation.
Ms Voynet's impatience to see the working week shortened - a leftist campaign promise - could create tension with the Socialist party.
In the wake of her election victory, she said she wanted rapid changes on a big scale; Mr Jospin, who visited Dole to campaign for her, is more cautious.
The Greens are trying to form a alliance with other small leftwing parties who with them won a total of 35 seats in Sunday's election. If they band together in a parliamentary group they may be able to take advantage of the Socialists' lack of an absolute majority - and need for their votes - to advance their own causes.