All the (R)evolutions of Postman Drouet

On the first day of summer in 1791, the postmaster of Sainte-Menehould in northeastern France was gazing idly out the window at the dusty road leading toward Verdun, when a lavish carriage and a smaller wagon briefly stopped in front of the post station. On the latter sat three footmen dressed in yellow vests (no joke). An hour later, a breathless National Guardsman arrived at the post and inquired whether anyone had seen the fugitive King Louis XVI, who had fled Paris the previous night with his family.

Our postmaster, Jean-Baptiste Drouet, was a revolutionary, a republican, and a patriot. So he promptly reported the king to the Parisian authorities. Then, he mounted his own horse and tracked down the royal family in nearby Varennes-en-Argonne, personally detaining them until the revolutionary forces arrived to make the arrest. Drouet was handsomely rewarded—he received 30,000 livres and, a little over a year later, was elected to the Convention, the assembly of the First French Republic, where he joined the radical Montagnards alongside Robespierre, Danton, and Marat. He was one of the most vocal advocates for the death penalty for Louis XVI, who met his end on the guillotine on 21 January 1793.

Two hundred and twenty-seven years later, another Drouet, this time Eric, a 33-year-old truck driver and fan of pimped-up engine cylinders from Melun, launched himself into public view. In mid-November, outraged by a seven-cent per liter gas price hike, he put on a yellow vest and headed to Paris with fellow protestors. Thus was born the Yellow Vest movement, and Eric Drouet became one of its most visible figures. When, in a fit of revolutionary fervor, he called for the occupation of the Élysée Palace, he earned not just a criminal complaint but also a glowing tribute on New Year’s Eve from Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the far-left France Unbowed party and bronze medalist in the 2017 presidential election.

The crafty veteran—once a Socialist Party apparatchik and ardent Europeanist, now a bitterly euroskeptic revolutionary—saw in the truck driver echoes of his namesake Jean-Baptiste, famed for his enthusiasm for the purifying force of revolutionary violence. Mélenchon admired Eric’s courage to defy the cruelty and injustice of the legal order and to do whatever it took to end Macron’s presidential monarchy. Mélenchon himself has never hidden his revolutionary disdain for legal constraints—especially those rules regulating how his party may (and may not) use EU funds. Likewise, Marine Le Pen has repeatedly rebelled against the hegemony of Europe’s elites.

The Yellow Vests are a chaotic movement of people united by their shared frustration with a political system they believe has pushed them to the economic, social, and political margins. What leaves a bitter taste is the opportunism of Mélenchon and his pathetic attempts to garner attention among protestors—nearly half of whom, according to recent surveys, now vote for the far right. Glorifying revolutionary violence and calling for the total destruction of institutions will hardly shift this dynamic in Mélenchon’s favor. Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen can afford to stay on the sidelines, knowing full well that the fruits of the revolt will fall into her lap. Compared to the increasingly frothy far-left, she appears like a calm and reasonable alternative to a beleaguered President Macron.

Mélenchon’s rhetoric—evoking a second storming of the Bastille—reveals a recurring pattern within parts of Europe’s left: faced with a choice between serving their voter base and expanding their support, or clinging to rigid dogmas and personal ambitions, they too often choose the latter. This consistently benefits right-wing populists.

A similar, if slightly less hysterical, scenario is unfolding in Britain’s Labour Party. Despite the fact that most Labour voters oppose Brexit, party leader Jeremy Corbyn continues to behave as though the only thing wrong with Brexit is that the Tories initiated it instead of him. His rigid left-wing euroskepticism—which still sees the EU as a conspiracy against the British working class—ignores the views of Labour’s pro-European majority, especially the youth who helped elevate Corbyn to the leadership. Worse, Corbyn’s behavior directly helps the already discredited Conservatives, who—faced with a more competent opposition—might have long since collapsed, taking their Brexit delusions with them.

The pattern is evident elsewhere too. In Italy, the Five Star Movement, born as an ideologically vague, anti-elite, euroskeptic movement for direct democracy, has now become the sidekick to Salvini’s far-right populism. Beppe Grillo and his gang will be discarded the moment Salvini no longer needs them—and judging by current polling, that moment is fast approaching.

As we head toward the European elections, the political arena is locked in a fake conflict between populist extremes. From both ends, they are doing everything they can to undermine the liberal democratic institutions established after World War II to preserve stability and peace. In between them stumble the “traditional” parties—headless chickens who, through their past actions, triggered today’s economic, social, and political crises. Now, they respond to voter defection with opportunism devoid of values, principles, courage, or ideas. They have surrendered, without a fight, the leadership role in defining and defending the issues people care about most: security, family, patriotism, identity, culture—even social justice.

If we don’t see a serious awakening soon, the result will be the dominance of nationalist, reactionary authoritarianism over democracy. We can only guess at the consequences of liberal democracy’s decline in Europe—but let us not forget that throughout European history, periods of peace and stability have only ever been brief flashes of light in long stretches of darkness.

Some, of course, will manage to adapt. Even our postman Jean-Baptiste Drouet did. After Napoleon’s 1799 coup, he moderated his republican zeal, became sub-prefect in his hometown of Sainte-Menehould, and was awarded the Legion of Honour by the new autocrat.

Revolutions end—power stands.