Paris on the Anniversary of the 1968 Protests
France puts great stock in anniversaries. On your Paris map, you’ll find streets named “8 Mai 1945” and “4 Septembre” and squares called “8 Novembre 1942,” “18 Juin 1940,” “19 Mars 1962,” and, most recently, “Place du 8 Février 1962” — this one so christened last year on the anniversary of a protest for peace in Algeria. Flags come out, like the mammoth Tricouleur under the Arc de Triomphe for today’s Victory Day; newspapers groan under weighty ruminations; officials don sashes.
May is especially good for this. Not only is the weather perfect, but it has the holiday perennials May Day and Victory Day. This year, the entire month is also the anniversary of the wave of French protests and strikes during the student uprisings in 1968.
May 6 also was President Nicolas Sarkozy’s first anniversary in office. There is a curious symmetry to the two commemorations.
The May ’68 commemorations are being led by gray-haired boomers nursing an intense nostalgia for a spring of uprising against almost everything. Mr. Sarkozy was swept into office promising a “rupture” with all the entrenched habits of his land: stifling labor rules, endless holidays, soaring taxes, paternalistic and bloated bureaucracy.
Read entire article at NYT
May is especially good for this. Not only is the weather perfect, but it has the holiday perennials May Day and Victory Day. This year, the entire month is also the anniversary of the wave of French protests and strikes during the student uprisings in 1968.
May 6 also was President Nicolas Sarkozy’s first anniversary in office. There is a curious symmetry to the two commemorations.
The May ’68 commemorations are being led by gray-haired boomers nursing an intense nostalgia for a spring of uprising against almost everything. Mr. Sarkozy was swept into office promising a “rupture” with all the entrenched habits of his land: stifling labor rules, endless holidays, soaring taxes, paternalistic and bloated bureaucracy.