From Memes to Mobilisation: France’s Growing Tax Revolt

Of course, they're not getting anything back! The Government is spending their taxes coddling the jihad and failing "green" projects.

From The European Conservative

By Hélène De Lauzun, PhD

The ‘Nicolas’ and ‘Gueux’ movements are giving voice to a rising class of disillusioned citizens who say they’re paying into a system that gives them nothing back.

Starting with a meme and a joke on social media, the ‘Nicolas’ movement—named after a common first name that now symbolises the frustration of young working people in France—has become a mass phenomenon in just a few weeks. It speaks to workers who feel they are financing a bloated state that has nothing to offer them in return. Meanwhile, other French people are rallying under the banner of the ‘Gueux’ (beggars) and making their discontent heard. Could the government now be facing a new wave of unrest similar to the Yellow Vest movement, which paralysed the country in 2018?

Two informal social revolt movements have been stirring France for several months.

The first is made up of those who call themselves “les Gueux” (the beggars), which they have turned into a badge of honour. The ‘Gueux’—an old-fashioned term that evokes the era of the Ancien Régime—are poor citizens who are fed up with being crushed by a ruthless power, an overbearing state that burdens them with constraints without offering them the protection and services they expect in return—all in the name of solidarity and ecology. Using this label, accompanied by the hashtag #gueux, these exasperated French citizens are following in the centuries-old tradition of tax rebels, the small and powerless who have entered into a futile war against the public machine determined to crush them—fighting back because they feel they have nothing left to lose.

The movement of the Gueux has found a spokesman in Alexandre Jardin, a successful novelist and theatre director. He played a decisive role in the fight against low-emission zones, which were ultimately rejected by the National Assembly, and sees this as a model for effective mobilisation on other issues, such as energy bills. His stated goal is to “win victories for the people on very concrete, just, republican and essential issues,” without waiting for distant and uncertain elections. His conviction: “The poor must exist for five years, not every five years.” To a certain extent, this is a call for a return to a form of direct democracy, which can, on occasion, draw support from mayors, local elected officials who have the merit of not having lost touch with reality.

The ‘Nicolas’ are a more playful, more cheerful version of the Gueux. The ‘Nicolas’ are thirty-somethings, they work and pay taxes with the feeling that they are fattening up pensioners and immigrants without ever benefiting themselves from all the money they are required to pay each month, taken from their salaries to feed a “national solidarity” in which they no longer believe. The X account @Nicolas qui paie (Nicolas is paying) has mastered the art of digital communication, with snappy slogans and well-crafted visuals that catch the eye and can be shared in a single click.

We must be careful not to see these discontented people as mere froth destined to quickly disappear, swept away in the vortex of the internet. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of French history will remember that tax fatigue has led to revolution in the past. The Gueux, like Nicolas, are uniting separate but related grievances: the struggle of young workers against pensioners; the disdain of the provinces, also known as “deep France,” towards Paris; the resentment of ordinary people towards the ruling elites, whom no one respects anymore.

The presentation of François Bayrou’s draft budget for 2026 has given new voice to this latent discontent. How can the prime minister expect the French to make further sacrifices when they already feel crushed by taxes and see everything disappearing into the bottomless pit of debt, energy bills, and social benefits for immigrants?

In high places, there is little desire to joke about these new uprisings, which could well, under certain circumstances, spill over into the streets and roundabouts, as was the case in the winter of 2018 with the Yellow Vests. That movement paralysed the country for several weeks before the government found a way to counter it. In reality, though, the government never found a solution: the movement faded on its own due to poor organisation, unclear goals, and—above all—because COVID struck, making it impossible for the protests to continue during the pandemic.

The situation in 2025 is not quite the same as it was seven years ago. The pandemic has taken its toll, impoverishing many households, breaking social ties, fuelling resentment and a feeling that consumer society has no real purpose or value. Emmanuel Macron was re-elected without any popular enthusiasm, demonstrating ever more clearly his almost universal incompetence. War broke out in Ukraine, plunging the country into energy chaos.

While Nicolas is readily portrayed by the mainstream press as a privileged whiner, the Gueux have strong revolutionary potential.

There are, of course, a few causes for pride in recent events that the French can draw on: resilience in the face of terrorism, the reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris, the euphoria of the Olympic Games. But, as Frédéric Dabi, director general of the IFOP polling institute, notes: “A large part of the French population feels excluded from these successes. If this feeling spreads, it will be terrible.” The revolt of the Gueux and the ‘Nicolas’ is where personal feelings of failure meet the awareness of systemic injustice. Identifying and understanding them is not just a pastime for sociologists: it will be one of the keys to the next presidential election.