“Let’s block everything”: on the left, young people, politicized… Who are the activists of the September 10 movement?

Antoine Bristielle, director of the Jean Jaurès Foundation's Opinion Observatory and a doctor of political science, conducted an investigation into the inner workings of the "Block Everything" movement, which is set to mobilize on September 10. The composite sketch reveals a far cry from the Yellow Vest movement: left-wing, young, politicized... but no less angry. Interview.

What differentiates “Block Everything” from the Yellow Vest movement?

The classic journalistic commentary made this movement a Yellow Vest 2.0 movement, while in terms of political, sociological profile or values, we are not at all with the same public. At the time, the Yellow Vests were a mini France in precarious situations . This is not at all the case here.

This is a France with higher education, younger, and very left-leaning, even radical left: a very large majority of its members voted for Jean-Luc Mélenchon (69%) or Philippe Poutou (10%). Furthermore, only 27% of those surveyed say they were a Yellow Vest.

The only point of convergence is this desire to move from representative democracy to direct democracy. For example, nine out of ten people want the people to make the law without going through representatives. This is in line with the RIC (citizens' initiative referendum), one of the slogans of the Yellow Vests.

You also observed a very high rate of abstention in the second round of the last presidential election...

In the first round, there were fewer abstainers in the "Block Everything" movement than in the French population as a whole. These are rather mobilized people, very interested in political issues. But it's true that in the second round, 68% of them abstained, refusing to vote for Emmanuel Macron or Marine Le Pen. This says several things: that the porosity with the far right is almost zero. And that there is a very strong distrust of Emmanuel Macron, and this well before the Bayrou budget .

What is the main concern of the members of this movement?

Broadly speaking, the movement's primary concern is inequality, with a strong desire for social and fiscal justice. Next come issues of environmental protection, and finally, purchasing power.

Overall, there is an impression that Emmanuel Macron's policies are very unfair, which is one of the reasons for the mobilization, and that it must be responded to with a redistributive and critical vision of the economic system. It is also worth noting that very few people think that there are "too many foreigners" in France or that "immigrants do not make an effort to integrate." This movement therefore does not appear to be transpartisan; on the contrary, its left-wing political identity is very strong.

Did Jean-Luc Mélenchon's call this summer to join and support the movement have any effect on this?

I began this study before Jean-Luc Mélenchon's call to join the movement, and the findings are clear: the profile of the movement's members, before and after his speech, hasn't really changed. They already had profiles that were clearly radical left-leaning.

However, I think his call reinforced a dynamic that was already present at the start. It is worth noting that at the beginning, far-right and sovereignist circles called for a blockade , but they were quickly marginalized by radical left-wing profiles. However, in the media, this idea persists that the far right is not far away.

Regarding the sociological profile of the movement's members, you note far fewer workers than in the Yellow Vest movement, but far more managers and students. What type of "blockages" should we expect based on this data?

It's very difficult to say. I asked the respondents an open question: what do you intend to do on the 10th? For a very large part, the answer was: "I don't know", "I will put myself at the service of the movement"... What is surprising is that the movement has a mobilization slogan, but no watchword on what will be done concretely.

This could hamper its results. Furthermore, the very homogeneous sociological and political profile will not allow it to be as broad as the Yellow Vest movement, which had an image far removed from the political structures and unifying more diverse profiles.

However, it is very difficult to predict the scale of this type of mobilization. This movement will take place two days after François Bayrou's vote of confidence , and a lot can happen this September. If the Prime Minister does not gain the confidence of parliamentarians, what will the President do ?

His decision may be likely to spark further anger. What is certain is that there is a simmering layer of worry and fear that could lead to anger. There is an extremely flammable social substance at play. It remains to be seen what the spark will be.