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

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Yellow vests
• law enforcement
• police violence
• liberal-authoritarianism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Petition started by Priscilla Ludovsky addressed to François de Rugy, ‘Pour une Baisse des Prix du Carburant à la Pompe !’ https://www.change.org/p/pour-une-baisse-des-prix-%C3%A0-la-pompe-essence-diesel?use_react=false

2. Republican security companies.

3. Art L211-9 of Homeland Security Code.

4. Article R211-16 of Homeland Security Code.

5. The authors previously mentioned applies Foucault’s definition of the raison d’Etat in the Birth of Biopolitics to the constitutional State. See M. Foucault, The Birth of the Biopolitics,, at 4: ‘Raison d’Etat is precisely a practice or rather the rationalisation of a practice which places itself between a State presented as given and a State having to be constructed or built’.

6. See notably Article 15 of the Déclaration of Human and civic rights that is part of the French Constitutional framework: ‘Society has the right to ask a public official for an accounting of his administration’.

7. Article 122–4 du code penal combined to Art L211-9 du code de la sécurité intérieure: ‘A person who draws up an act ordered by the lawful authority shall not be criminally liable, unless that act is manifestly unlawful.’

8. L’emploi de la force par les représentants de la force publique n’est possible que si les circonstances le rendent absolument nécessaire au maintien de l’ordre public dans les conditions définies par l’article L. 211–9. La force déployée doit être proportionnée au trouble à faire cesser et son emploi doit prendre fin lorsque celui-ci a cessé.

9. Article 222–12 Penal Code: ‘The offence defined in article 222–11 is punishable by five years’ imprisonment and a fine of €75,000 when it is committed: By a person holding public authority or entrusted with a public service mission in the exercise or on the occasion of the exercise of his or her functions or mission’.

10. A hashtag called ‘Selon l’IGPN’ (‘According to the IGPN’) has been very popular in Twitter in March 2019. It consisted on showing a picture of a policeman apparently committing violence against a protester and to accompany this picture of a legend with an ironic justification, such as: ‘This is not police violence, it is a CRS trying to save a protester from a wasp’.

11. Ministre de la justice, ‘Circulaire relative au traitement judiciaire des infractions commises en lien avec le mouvement de contestation dit « des gilets jaunes »’, CRIM/2018-15/E1 – 22.11.2018

12. Art 132–75 Penal code: ‘Any other object that is likely to present a risk for individuals shall be assimilated to a weapon as soon as it is utilised to kill, wound or threat or aimed at kill, wound, or threat by the one who bears it.’

13. Loi du 10 avril 2019 visant à renforcer et garantir le maintien de l’ordre public lors des manifestations