Anti-populism during the Yellow Vest protests: From combatting the Rassemblement National to dealing with street populists

This article analyses the anti-populist strategy of La République en marche! (LREM) during Yellow Vest protests by comparing it with one used against Rassemblement National (RN), France’s main populist party. It argues that while political elites LREM have ostracised and strongly demonised RN to contain its progression, their reaction protest movement was more balanced cautious. As they were facing ordinary citizens asking for fiscal justice direct democracy rather than radical right politicians RN, behaved in a conciliatory way softened rhetoric demonisation. Overall, distinguishes two types anti-populism: an adversarial face party accommodative deal social movement.