France: the Yellow Vests Movement – one year later

Abstract

A year has come since the beginning of the yellow vests actions, which have outdone all social battles in the history of the Fifth Republic in terms of duration, scale of media attention and level of collateral violence. The enormous resonance of the movement was amplified by the support it found among the French population. From the usual demonstrations, the yellow vest protests differed, in particular, by the heterogeneity, unusualness and radicalism of slogans, amon which stood out the demands for the resignation of President E. Macron. Their revolt not only caused an acute social crisis, but also plunged France into a political crisis, which had a number of dimensions. At the same time, the yellow vest movement expressed longer-term discontent. Its rise was prepared by the processes of socio-economic spatial stratification. Politically, it continued such trends as the decline of confidence in established institutions, the revival of the opposition between «the rulers» and «the ruled». Unrelated to either political parties or trade unions, this spontaneous revolt looked like an awakening of the «silent majority» of «peripheral France» with difficult-topredict consequences. The phenomenon of yellow vests does not fit existing theories of social movements, thus it has caused unprecedented interest of researchers and intellectuals. Regardless of its future, the movement has already had a serious impact on social and political developments in France and given impetus to similar protests in other countries. It will remain in social memory and political thought, and its effects will continue to be felt.

Keywords

• «yellow vests»
• social movements
• protest movements
• socio-political crisis
• «peripheral france».