Leiden University Student Repository

Régibeau, Céline (2023)

Climate policy and populism in France: The European Green Deal and the Gilets Jaunes

Master thesis | International Relations (MA)

The European Green Deal has sparked my interest as the deal became increasingly present on the European political stage. As a French speaker, I remember the Gilets Jaunes movement that went against announced carbon taxes in 2018 very well. I wanted to know what the Gilets Jaunes, a movement previously against a national climate policy, thought of the European Green Deal. I realised that there was no research yet on that specific subject. I therefore decided to focus my thesis on this topic by posing the following research question “What do the Gilet Jaunes think about the European Green Deal?”. After a first attempt to understand the movement's stance on the EGD through social media, I interviewed three affiliates of the GJ and asked them about their opinions on the EGD. In general, the participants were very keen on the idea of a climate policy that would, for instance, make European cities less polluted. However, the participants did not agree with the current implementation of...Show moreThe European Green Deal has sparked my interest as the deal became increasingly present on the European political stage. As a French speaker, I remember the Gilets Jaunes movement that went against announced carbon taxes in 2018 very well. I wanted to know what the Gilets Jaunes, a movement previously against a national climate policy, thought of the European Green Deal. I realised that there was no research yet on that specific subject. I therefore decided to focus my thesis on this topic by posing the following research question “What do the Gilet Jaunes think about the European Green Deal?”. After a first attempt to understand the movement's stance on the EGD through social media, I interviewed three affiliates of the GJ and asked them about their opinions on the EGD. In general, the participants were very keen on the idea of a climate policy that would, for instance, make European cities less polluted. However, the participants did not agree with the current implementation of the EGD by the European Union. They find that the new EGD laws are difficult to apply for the commoners (i.e., not everyone can afford an electric car) and that there is too much disconnect between the population and the decision makers in Brussels.Show less

climate policy, gilets jaunes, yellow vests, EGD, European Green Deal

Author

Régibeau, Céline

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Global Political Economy (GPE)

Supervisors

Scepanovic, V.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en