When on May 3, 1968 the student rebellion spread from Nanterre to the Sorbonne, the Minister of Education, Alain Peyrefitte, then referred to “a handful of troublemakers”. In this France which "is bored" according to the article by Pierre Viansson-Ponté published in Le Monde on March 15 and passed down to posterity, no one had really seen the wave coming which, in 27 days, will transform a revolt student in social and political crisis.
Read also: In the first quarter, economic activity went down as much as in the spring of 1968
Especially since the power, in ten years of the Fifth Republic, has gained in stability, the unemployment rate is lower than 3% and growth (4.9% in 1967) has led to an increase in the standard of living of the entire population. France, at the end of the Trente Glorieuses, entered fully into the consumer society. More than half of French households now have a washing machine.
For a section of the youth, this prosperity allied to the conservatism of the elderly is felt like a straitjacket. Moreover, the French university protest
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