As the Yellow Vests are set to protest again this Saturday, a majority of French people believe the movement should come to an end.
After these tumultuous weeks, it is not advisable to believe or propagate the idea of a widespread conflict narrative between activists who pride themselves on representing the people, on one hand, and the government, on the other, which would gradually scare everyone (the government chiefly among them).
Like in a series, the Yellow Vests—whose sometimes exaggerated claims from some leading figures and affinities with the far right have been highlighted—used a key ingredient: the weekly Saturday demonstrations.
Thanks to the media overexposure they get, the Yellow Vests provide a constant spectacle for the cameras, shaped by a backdrop, actions, and interviewable actors, offering a never-ending, renewable source of images to fill broadcast time.
The protest, fueled by the Internet, sets itself up as an alternative to representative democracy: rejecting leadership, rejecting intermediate bodies, with expressions that are more emotional (indignation, anger) rather than argued around very specific demands.
After two centuries of painstaking construction of representative democracy, which can always be improved upon, the idea of direct governance by citizens (via the Internet?) emerges as the enchantment of politics.
The path of digitized populism has been paved by other figures like Trump or Beppe Grillo, figures on whom initially no bookmaker would have wagered a penny.
A leader and his troops. It’s time to start getting concerned.
