“Nicolas is paying”: Nicolas, 30, is becoming a social phenomenon. This very common French first name has now come to represent, on social media, the honest and hard-working citizen who is fed up with paying social contributions to a country that is going downhill and financing uncontrolled immigration with exorbitant welfare benefits. Accused by the mainstream press of being supported by the far Right, the movement has already spread to the United Kingdom.
Seemingly harmless and devoid of any hidden meaning, the name Nicolas has become, in just a few weeks, the rallying cry of an entire generation of people who feel they have been sacrificed. On X, there is now an account called @NicolasQuiPaie, which has tens of thousands of followers. Several hashtags have been added: #JeSuisNicolas, modelled on #JeSuisCharlie, or simply #Nicolasquipaie. There is even @JulieQuiPaie—Nicolas’ wife. Stickers and T-shirts have been produced, and Nicolas can now be found on X, TikTok, Instagram, and Substack.
Nicolas is the average French citizen: he works and pays his contributions and taxes honestly, thereby enabling the famous French ‘social model’ to continue, without ever seeing any of the benefits himself. Nicolas pays, but he receives no social assistance and has to make do with increasingly inadequate public services: non-existent public safety, a failing education system, and hospitals in freefall. For conservative editorialist Ivan Rioufol, Nicolas “symbolises the generation of thirty-somethings who work, ask nothing of the state, break nothing, but always have to pay for others … while being called racist!”
Today, Nicolas is fed up with being the fall guy, and he’s making it known.
The birth of Nicolas can be traced back to a speech given a few months ago by Gérault Verny, a member of parliament for the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR), a party allied with the Rassemblement National (RN). He concluded his speech in the National Assembly during a debate on government spending with the following words: “Every time a euro of public money is wasted, Nicolas is paying.” Since then, ‘Nicolas is paying’ has become a political slogan.
Nicolas’ revolt is one of the many avatars of the anti-tax revolts that France has been prone to for centuries. But Nicolas’ ancestors, who under the Ancien Régime protested against excessive taille and gabelle (royal and salt taxes), were far from being taxed at the levels Nicolas is today. France holds the sad record for the highest rate of compulsory levies in Europe, which stood at 44.8% of GDP in 2023, compared with 39.2% in the rest of the eurozone.
Who are Nicolas’ targets? First and foremost the ‘boomers’—the post-war generation, who experienced France at the height of its prosperity, now enjoy comfortable pensions, and did virtually nothing to prevent the country’s collapse. The boomers targeted by Nicolas are also fervent supporters of Emmanuel Macron. Under the French pay-as-you-go pension system, ‘Nicolas is paying’ for the boomers’ pensions—even though he himself is not at all sure that he will be able to afford a comfortable retirement in a few years’ time.
Nicolas is also offended by the waste of public money on dubious programmes: the Pass Culture, which finances the purchase of manga comics by immature teenagers, social security reimbursement for gender reassignment and lavish Olympic Games, to name but a few.
Finally, Nicolas attacks immigrants, both legal and illegal, who receive social assistance and benefits that he never sees, but which he finances through his taxes. He would like the government to finally decide to put an end to the billions spent on state medical aid to cure illegal immigrants. He’s desperately waiting, but nothing changes.
Nicolas welcomed Musk’s decision to stir up the American administration. He also makes no secret of the fact that he is inspired by Milei’s policies in Argentina. Nicolas has some shocking statistics up his sleeve: France has more civil servants per capita than Communist China. 10% of taxpayers pay around 75% of the total income tax.
It’s a fact: Nicolas is right-wing. Even far-right, if we are to believe the mainstream press.
Where things get complicated is that France is not the only country affected by this phenomenon. Imagine that Nicolas also has a British cousin—Nick, 30 years old. Nick is fed up with paying the rent for Karim who, far from contributing to the national effort, sends his entire salary to his family in Somalia every week with a click of a button thanks to Wire. Across the Channel, Nick and Nicolas reach out to each other and dare to believe in a better tomorrow.
Let’s not take Nicolas lightly. Beyond his obvious sense of humour, Nicolas has had enough. Like Figaro, the famous barber created by Beaumarchais, he rushes to laugh at everything for fear of being forced to cry (il se presse de rire de tout, de peur d’être obligé d’en pleurer).
All that remains for us to do is to take up Marion Maréchal’s call: “Hang in there, Nicolas, we’re coming!”
