France: Shadows of May ’68

For a time last week’s demonstrations recalled the heady days of May 1968, when hundreds of thousands of radicalized French students took to the streets to protest a wide range of university and government policies. But the new generation of student demonstrators had more modest goals and more orderly manners. Their aim: to defeat an educational-reform bill that would tighten admissions standards and raise tuition fees.

The demonstrators shut down more than 50 universities. Then, as debate on the bill was about to begin in the National Assembly, half a million students ) across the country — 200,000 in Paris alone — marched in a mostly peaceful show of strength.

The protesters promised to continue until the government abandons the reforms, which students called elitist. The National Assembly deferred action on the bill by referring it to a committee.