The “yellow vests” movement is special in at least two respects. First, it
managed to maintain protest activity for many weeks, despite its disorganization and ineffective leadership. Second, it demonstrated a unique interplay of violent and nonviolent tactics, which surprisingly did not hurt its
widespread public approval and widespread media coverage. This paper is
intended to answer the question why the movement did not join any political force and rejected all attempts to integrate into the party system.