May 1968, Sartre and Sarkozy

Jean-Pierre Boulé

doi:10.22329/p.v4i2.2912

Abstract

This article begins by analysing the impact of May ’68 on Sartre. The article then attempts to show similarities and then differences between Sartre wanting to be a "new intellectual" and Sarkozy a "new type of politician," based on Sarkozy’s (in)famous speech given in Bercy in April 2007 prior to the second round of voting in the French Presidential elections when he launched into a most virulent attack on the spirit of May ’68. Finally, I argue that Sarkozy wants to go back to the time of colonialism in the 1950s and 1960s, reclaiming in the process de Gaulle’s heritage.

Highlights

At first sight, it seems strange to have associated these two names in an article on May 1968
He wanted to attend the 30th May pro-de Gaulle demonstration, but his mother ensured that he was kept in school to prevent him from going. He was further associated with the events due to the fact that he was a law student in the mid-1970s at Nanterre University, where the student movement had begun and where Daniel Cohn-Bendit had been a sociology student
Many will remember thefamous speech Sarkozy gave in Bercy in April 2007 prior to the second round of voting in the French Presidential elections when he launched into virulent attack on May ’68, concluding that he wanted once and for all to dispose of the spirit of May ’68.2 My argument is that while arguing this standpoint, Sarkozy has appropriated left-wing rhetoric in order to convince his audience, and this is what I aim to demonstrate in this article

Summary

Introduction

It seems strange to have associated these two names in an article on May 1968. Newspapers and radio, Sartre was readily applying the theoretical concepts of Critique de la raison dialectique: “the only possible means of communication with the Others, as they are already serialized, is the serial unity of the mass media” (582).7 There was

Results

Conclusion