You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Europe
Sarkozy pulls no punches in campaign attack on '68ers'
2006-09-05
Posted on the off-chance that France still matters.
MARSEILLE, France, Sept 3, 2006 (AFP) - French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy appeared almost certain to lead the right into next year's presidential election, after a triumphant party congress which concluded Sunday in Marseille with a blistering attack on the "generation of May 1968".

Speaking before 7,000 young members of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), Sarkozy, 51, said modern France had been betrayed by the left-wing ideals that took root after the 1968 student uprising, and called for a society built around "a reassertion of the value of work". "(The generation of 1968) inculcated everywhere — in politics, in education, in society — an inversion of values and a political correctness of which today's young people are the principal victims," Sarkozy said to applause.

"The truth is that the students of May '68 were the spoiled children of 30 years of prosperity. You are the children of crisis. They lived a life without constraints. Today you are picking up the bill," he said.
It would be nice if he actually meant that and planned to do something about it, instead of empty rhetoric and nibbling around the edges.
Posted by:Steve White

#8  Enjoy your self made socialist utopia hell-hole you have there!

Oh, and don't call US when you run into help. We will call you.

Maybe.
Posted by: DarthVader   2006-09-05 15:58  

#7  the left-wing ideals that took root after the 1968 student uprising, and called for a society built around "a reassertion of the value of work"

Oh, yeah, right. Nothing like "The national unemployment rate is 9.6 per cent and tops 20 per cent for youths, but several French factors — such as strict labour laws, job discrimination and fear of globalization — spread the angst even wider"[1] to demonstrate another 20th Century triumph of Socialism.

[1] cite here
Posted by: Snaviger Glulet8640   2006-09-05 11:18  

#6  Sarkozy's right, as far as he goes. Unfortunately, I don't see a political solution. A socialst entitlement society now dominates every aspect of french public life. Hell, they'd riot all over France if you made them work 40 hours a week. They need a really good war to clean things up. They've had it easy on their socialist asses for too long while the US and others do the dirty work of the world.
Posted by: mcsegeek1   2006-09-05 08:39  

#5  Not a single person was killed during the 68 riots but at times I think it was pity to have let the ringleaders walk unscathed and (by plating hero and the rivalries between gaulists, pompildolists and giscardians) get control of the MSM

As a note: the 68 riots were a university thing and mostly in the psycholgy, sociology and law departments (ie the pseudo sciences and soft sciences). But in France it is not universities who get the best students and offer the best perspectives of empoyment but the "grandes ecoles" who deliver MBAs and engineer dregres and who select their students through a ferocious competition while universities get a lot of bad wood who are filtered out by end of first or second year. There were about zero students of grandes ecoles to take part inb the riots. I also suspect that there were very few university students in third year and later to riot. So thoise who rioted were the never-do-good who plague the first year courses in French universities.

Anoter detail is that when de Gaulle asked the Army chiefs how the student (sons of bourgeoisie) riots were perceived by the draftees (1) (sons of the blue collars) they told him that the draftees despised the whole movement.

(1) In France even in De Gaulle times there were a lot of ways for university students to escape the draft from alleged medical conditions, to intervention of friednly politicians and of course the cooperation (civilian work in Africa supposedly to lift it out of underdevelopment). The result was that university graduates were virtually absent from French Army's barracks. A few did their military service as aspiring officers but excpt for thema and carreer officers
the sons of bourgeoisie were virtuallyt absent of the French land Army.
Posted by: JFM   2006-09-05 07:17  

#4  Even if it is just talk, it's great to hear the "generation of '68" get ripped.
Posted by: HV   2006-09-05 06:20  

#3  'modern France had been betrayed by the left-wing ideals that took root after the 1968 student uprising, and called for a society built around "a reassertion of the value of work". "(The generation of 1968) inculcated everywhere — in politics, in education, in society — an inversion of values and a political correctness of which today's young people are the principal victims," '

Not just France.

Posted by: no mo uro   2006-09-05 06:10  

#2  FOX NEWS > Babe-pert on Euro politics = FRANCE per se has a HIGH, PERMANENT UNEMPLOYMENT RATE which pretty much prohibits Paris from doing much of anything as a matter of geopolitics, as currently AGAIN illustrated in the recent Israel-Hezbollah/Hizbullah crisis.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2006-09-05 00:41  

#1  One thing you can say about the frogs, they know how to run a dirty political campaign. This is guaranteed to be popcorn-worthy.
Posted by: mojo   2006-09-05 00:30  

00:00