Block Everything is ‘a movement structured almost exclusively around radical left sympathizers’

As head of the Opinion Monitoring Center at the Fondation Jean Jaurès (a think tank focused on social democracy), Antoine Bristielle circulated a questionnaire between August 15 and 23 in the online conversations of the Bloquons Tout (Block Everything) movement. His research, which gathered 1,089 responses, provides insight into the demographic and political profiles of its participants. Unlike the demographics of the Yellow Vest movement, respondents were less likely to have « experienced economic insecurity firsthand » and were more motivated by « a strong left-wing political commitment and a desire to act ‘for others,' » he said.

Initially described in July as a scattered and heterogeneous movement mixing sovereigntist influences and left-wing messages, the September 10 movement continues to raise many questions, including about its very existence. How would you describe it after your survey?

What surprised me is that this movement, often presented as a kind of Yellow Vests 2.0, actually seems quite distant from the profile of the 2019 protestors. I found, instead, the typical profile of a radical left activist. Nearly 70% of respondents said they voted for Jean-Luc Mélenchon [of the radical left La France Insoumise] in the last presidential election, while 10% voted for Philippe Poutou [Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste, the far-left, Trotskyist party].

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