Repressing the Protests through Law, Police and Discourse: the Example of the Yellow Vests’ Movement in France

Abstract

ABSTRACT The yellow vests movement dominated the French political debate and agenda from October 2018 and throughout 2019, exposing the difficult living conditions of many French people – especially those living on the outskirts of cities and in the countryside. Overwhelmed by the protests and bothered by the public support they garnered, the government was unwilling to meet the yellow vests’ political demands, given its chosen financial strategy and taxation policies. It therefore used different tools in order to contain demonstrations and repress demonstrators, in the hope of discouraging people from protesting. This article presents the different strategies of control and repression that were used by the government and the President in order to do so. It focuses in particular on police violence, and the political discourse surrounding it; as well as on the judicial strategies that allowed for the arrest of many protesters, while police officers went uncondemned. These strategies raise deep democratic and legal issues, and illustrate, I argue, the potential link between ordo-liberalism and authoritarianism that has already been highlighted by numerous authors.