"Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth"
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Hatched in far right sovereignist and conspiracist Telegram groups, the ‘Bloquons Tout’ protest movement has shifted sharply to the left. Especially over the summer when it received strong backing from the pro-Putin far left demagogue Jean-Luc Mélenchon and several key figures from the Yellow Vests movement that paralysed France in Macron’s first term. Read our report on this ‘uprising’ where resentment and manufactured distrust of the political class converge.*
‘Nebulous’. ‘Far right’. ‘Conspiracist and anti-vax’. ‘Radical far left’: almost every label has been applied to the ‘Bloquons tout !’ (‘Let’s Block Everything!’, i.e. ‘Bring France to a Standstill!’) movement since it first emerged in early July in Telegram groups. So what exactly is it? Clearly, the reality of the movement is disparate, colorful, and riddled with contradictions. It also displays a form of homogeneity around a central idea: that elites conspire against the people. Since it has gained support from political parties like La France Insoumise (LFI or France Unbowed) a conspiracist reading has even emerged portraying the movement itself as one of the Elysée’s covert weapons. One thing is certain: reducing “Let’s Block Everything!” to a single aspect of this political kaleidoscope is simplistic. Let’s recap.
The movement began with a confidential Telegram group called “Les Essentiels” (“The Essentials”), created by Julien Marissiaux. “Les Essentiels” is also the name of a community café in northern France where, one July evening, a short video was recorded highlighting three words: “boycott,” “disobedience,” “solidarity.” And a date: September 10. The promise was nothing less than to “bring France to a halt.”
On Marissiaux’s LinkedIn profile, Le Monde noted praise for Elon Musk, references to the far right Le Pen party Rassemblement National (National Rally) and videos of the sovereignist political figure Philippe de Villiers. The account’s first posts focused on “French fed up”, defending the Yellow shirts, small businesses, and France’s “Christian roots,” or calling for “Frexit.”
The original call: on September 10, no online purchases, no TV, no work — a kind of “lockdown without a virus.” Added to this was familiar far right rhetoric: Emmanuel Macron’s removal from office, or banning Freemasonry for elected officials and prefects — an idea once floated by Italy’s Five Star Movement. Other material shared was decidedly populist: a tirade by the conspiracist agitator and lawyer Juan Branco and an anti-Macron diatribe by singer Francis Lalanne. The Telegram feed clearly flirted with populist right-wing themes, to the point that sovereignists like the former Le Pen supporter Florian Philippot hailed it as a “sign of the French people’s vitality” and praised its strong “Frexit” origins.
Though initially marginal, the movement grew after July 14, following then Prime minister François Bayrou’s budget announcements. Initiatives like the “credit card strike” appeared, amplified on X (formerly Twitter) by lawyer Alberto Carlo Brusa. On July 19, the conspiracy influencer AuBonTouiteFrançais (136,000 followers) broadcast a “national call for a total, general, and unlimited shutdown of the country from September 10, 2025.”
In a thread, BFM TV journalist Raphaël Grably highlighted the conspiracist bent: on “Les Essentiels,” articles about Macron’s supposed support for Freemasons and references to conspiracy influencers such as Idriss Aberkane.
Between July 17–19, conspiracist accounts pushed the hashtags #10septembre and #BloquonsTout. Another hashtag, #GouvernementDeTromperie (“Government of Deceit”), raised eyebrows: launched on June 29 by two conspiracy accounts, it was later echoed by suspicious profiles, according to Grably. Foreign bot amplification cannot be ruled out.
The movement’s digital footprint expanded in mid-August. The hashtag #10septembre escaped its activist niche. Old Yellow Vests networks were reactivated. Visuals spread widely on X, and the hashtag became a top trend on TikTok. Another collective, “Let’s Be Outraged!” (Indignons-nous), emerged in mid-July and quickly became the most visible banner of “Let’s Block Everything!”.
The group “Bloquons tout – Indignons-nous” became dominant, “more marked on the left,” with its website indignonsnous.fr serving as a hub: ready-to-use visuals, complaint forms, links to social media. A “Sites” page listed a constellation of mirror domains (10s25.fr, bloquonstout.ovh, indignonsnous.fr, etc.), pointing to a deliberate multiplication strategy. “Indignons-nous” prioritized blockades, general assemblies, and coordinated actions, breaking with the “citizen lockdown” initially promoted by the “Essentiels” Telegram cluster. On X, the rise of “Indignons-nous” coincided with the leftward shift of discussions in August. At that stage, the political realignment from right to left was not yet complete.
Visibrain, a digital monitoring agency, published a study titled September 10: 50 Shades of Anti-System Anger. It confirmed that the September 10 mobilization began on Telegram within the sovereignist “Essentiels,” before consolidating mainly on X, in three phases: a fast start (~19,000 daily posts), a slump late July–mid August (~8,000 per day), and a sharp rise after August 17, the day after Mélenchon publicly endorsed it in La Tribune Dimanche.
Mélenchon, who had already expressed sympathy on July 30 on his blog (“As with the Yellow Vests, if I must give my opinion, I would say I identify with the motives of this action”), went further on August 17: “We call for a determined offensive to bring down this government. On the ground, through popular mobilization everywhere, and in Parliament through an immediate motion of censure.” He also urged LFI activists to put themselves “at the service of local collectives proposing this mobilization, and do everything possible to make it succeed.”
According to Visibrain, the effect was immediate: daily posts jumped to 70,000. Mapping showed an initial mosaic (sovereignists, identitarian right, ex-Yellow Vests, radical left) shifting decisively left after mid-August, with right-wing actors withdrawing. Visibrain also noted clusters of fake accounts distinct from the main movement — not merely foreign “false flags,” though the wave could be exploited by “chaos engineers.”
Two narratives emerged: the sovereignist Telegram channel “Les Essentiels,” where “September 10” first appeared, versus the “Indignons-nous” network, more confrontational, moving from calls for a “citizen lockdown” to a “total blockade.”
Political scientist Antoine Bristielle produced a survey for the Jean-Jaurès Foundation between August 15–23 (1,089 responses collected on movement channels). It suggested an overwhelming left wing profile: based on 2022 first-round votes, “over 80% of ‘Let’s Block Everything’ supporters appear to come from the radical left,” with 86% self-identifying as far left. Moreover, 27% had actively participated in the Yellow Vests and 61% said they supported it, totaling 88%. Thus, while the late-August profile anchored the movement firmly on the radical left, it also showed continuity with the Yellow Vests, reinforced by endorsements from several of their figures.
The leftward turn did not please everyone. Almost immediately, conspiracist reinterpretations emerged online. Leading the charge: the hard right independent Frexiter François Asselineau. “It is now clear this operation is orchestrated behind the scenes by the far left, perhaps with discreet support from Macron. Mélenchon is a fake opponent who helped elect Macron twice and refuses Frexit,” the UPR leader declared.
Anti-vax YouTuber Momotchi also voiced suspicion, claiming that giving the government two months to prepare its response was suspicious. Amplified by the conspiracist site Le Média en 4-4-2, she urged her followers to bypass the movement. In this conspiracist fringe, efforts to regain control included backing the British anti-immigration movement “Raise the Colours,” via the hashtag #OperationTricolore. Myriam Palomba and Florian Philippot sought to reconnect the protest with currents closer to their own ideas.
In the end, “Let’s Block Everything” seems to have mutated from a conspiracism-tinged protest against the political class into a more conventional social mobilization. Online, however, it remains a populist, anti-establishment campaign centered on one simple idea: them (the elites) versus us (the people). The only question is how far and how long these already violent protests fueled by concocted anti-system fury against France’s latest government and attempts to pass a budget will last.
* Adapted from a report in French by David Medioni for Conspiracy Watch.
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