Gilets Jaunes – The Rise of a Populist Social Movement?

The Gilets Jaunes movement, which started in late 2018 in France, has been exceptional in many ways. While the demonstration have not broken any records of affluence, it has already had dramatic political consequences. The Gilets Jaunes movement is also the first example in France of the successful mobilization in the streets of an online mobilization. However, this movement is also disparate in its claims, and it is difficult to define the political line of the Gilets Jaunes. This paper examines the Gilets Jaunes movement in three ways. First, it looks at the conditions and the actors, which allowed for the translation of a social media-based movement to sizeable street protests. Second, it relies on the systematic analysis of an extensive collection of Facebook posts of Gilets Jaunes groups to determine to what extent the Gilet Jaunes movement is a genuine populist social movement. Indeed, the movement crystalizes on the frontal opposition to Emmanuel Macron and the political and media elite at large, and on a claim to represent the true people. Third, the article draws the comparison between the Gilets Jaunes movement and the Italian Movimento 5 Stelle. Indeed both movement have striking similarities in their origins (online), forms (decentralized direct democracy), and political claims (reject of the caste); yet the two movements also bear important differences (leadership, organization capacities, transformation into an electoral party).