The Presidential Election of 1968 Includes graphs, history and state by state results On 30 May 1968, in a radio speech, President Charles de Gaulle, who had been out of the public eye for three days (he was in Baden-Baden, Germany), announced the dissolution of the National Assembly, and a new legislative election, by way of restoring order. Heavy police repression of the protesters led France's trade union confederations to call for sympathy strikes, which spread far more quickly than expected to involve 11 million workers, more than 22% of the total population of France at the time. The post-crisis survey showed that a majority of the country saw de Gaulle as too old, too self-centered, too authoritarian, too conservative, and too anti-American. Richard Nixon Republican National Convention acceptance speech 1968. Paris, Posters of a Revolution Collection, Marking the French Social Revolution of 1968, Barricades of May ’68 Still Divide the French, Left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks (Third Russian Revolution), Human rights movement in the Soviet Union, Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, 1968 student demonstrations in Yugoslavia, 1968 Democratic National Convention protest activity, Third World Liberation Front strikes of 1968, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=May_68&oldid=999766874, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using Sister project links with wikidata mismatch, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Articles containing Spanish-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. It occurred due to the resignation of President Charles de Gaulle on 28 April 1969. John F. Kennedy, a wealthy Democratic senator from Massachusetts, was elected president in 1960, defeating Vice President Richard Nixon. No charges were filed against police or demonstrators, but the governments of Britain and West Germany filed formal protests, including for the indecent assault of two English schoolgirls by police in a police station. Immediately after the speech, about 800,000 supporters marched through the Champs-Élysées waving the national flag; the Gaullists had planned the rally for several days, which attracted a crowd of diverse ages, occupations, and politics. "[4], In February 1968, the French Communists and French Socialists formed an electoral alliance. The events of May 1968 continue to influence French society. One official reportedly began burning documents, while another asked an aide how far they could flee by automobile should revolutionaries seize fuel supplies. He had received a surprisingly high 45% of the vote in the 1965 presidential election. Withdrawing money from banks became difficult, gasoline for private automobiles was unavailable, and some people tried to obtain private planes or fake national identity cards. But that earlier election launched an era of discord and lawlessness, in high places and low. Beginning in May 1968, a period of civil unrest occurred throughout France, lasting some seven weeks and punctuated by demonstrations, general strikes, as well as the occupation of universities and factories. Elso Incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson ended the bombing in Northern Vietnam and withdrew his bid for re-election after he was fiercely challenged by one of the Democratic candidates, Eugene J. By the middle of May, demonstrations extended to factories, though its workers' demands significantly varied from that of the students. [9][17][19], From that point, the revolutionary feeling of the students and workers faded away. The presidential helicopter did not arrive in Colombey, however, and de Gaulle had told no one in the government where he was going. Prime Minister Georges Pompidou personally announced the release of the prisoners and the reopening of the Sorbonne. 1 23. The national student union called off street demonstrations. Wallace's tally of 46 marks the most recent election that a 3rd party candidate has won Electoral Votes; Nixon won North Carolina; however one elector cast a vote for Wallace Results in French Election. On 28 May, François Mitterrand of the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left declared that "there is no more state" and stated that he was ready to form a new government. When the Sorbonne reopened, students occupied it and declared it an autonomous "people's university". [14], As the upheaval reached its apogee in late May, major trade unions met with employers' organizations and the French government to produce the Grenelle agreements, which would increase the minimum wage 35% and all salaries 10%, and granted employee protections and a shortened working day. There were all these riots that the generation that I belonged to, for better or worse, was starting to get antsy. POLITICO Poll of Polls — French polls, trends and election news for France. [1] It was the largest general strike ever attempted in France, and the first nationwide wildcat general strike.[1]. [16], The Socialists saw an opportunity to act as a compromise between de Gaulle and the Communists. Alain Geismar—one of the leaders of the time—later stated that the movement had succeeded "as a social revolution, not as a political one. Although the 1946-1958 French Fourth Republic was a period of significant progress, in which the French economy engaged in a remarkable postwar recovery, as well as important accomplishments such as the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) by the 1957 Treaty of Rome (of which France was a founding member), it was also characterized by a lack of … Les partis de gauche, alors considérés comme partiellement responsables de ladite crise, ont subi une cuisante défaite au profit de la majorité sortante, qui avait pourtant éprouvé de sérieuses difficultés à l'emporter lors des précédentes élections, un an auparavant. I love America for that very reason. After the publication of their wishes, the students left the building without any trouble. The ELECTION OF 1968 The presidential election of 1968 was one of the most chaotic in American history, reflecting a time that was in many ways equally chaotic. [9] (One scholar, otherwise skeptical of the French Communists' willingness to maintain democracy after forming a government, has claimed that the "moderate, nonviolent and essentially antirevolutionary" Communists opposed revolution because they sincerely believed that the party must come to power through legal elections, not armed conflict that might provoke harsh repression from political opponents. [11][12] In fact, in the May 68 movement there was a lot of "anti-unionist euphoria,"[13] against the mainstream unions, the CGT, FO and CFDT, that were more willing to compromise with the powers that be than enact the will of the base. Minister of Defence Pierre Messmer and Chief of the Defence Staff Michel Fourquet prepared for such an action, and Pompidou had ordered tanks to Issy-les-Moulineaux. Language; Watch; Edit (Redirected from French Senate election, 1968) The fourth senatorial elections of the Fifth Republic were held in France on September 22, 1968. De Gaulle refused Pompidou's request that he dissolve the National Assembly as he believed that their party, the Gaullists, would lose the resulting election. In Lyon, Police Inspector Rene Lacroix died when he was crushed by a driverless truck sent careering into police lines by rioters. ", in Les droites en France (1789–2008), CNRS Editions, 2008, p. 61–68, This page was last edited on 11 January 2021, at 21:24. They were held in the aftermath of the events of May 1968. [9][5], On the morning of 29 May, de Gaulle postponed the meeting of the Council of Ministers scheduled for that day and secretly removed his personal papers from Élysée Palace. The Communists reproached the Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left (FGDS) leader François Mitterrand for not having consulted it before he announced his candidacy in the next presidential election, and for the formation of a provisional government led by Pierre Mendès-France. ", Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left, Left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks, Fais que ton rêve soit plus long que la nuit, "Eugene Register-Guard – Google News Archive Search", https://www.scribd.com/doc/112409042/The-French-May-and-the-Roots-of-Postmodern-Politics, "Encyclopédie Larousse en ligne – événements de mai 1968", "Pour la gauche radicale, "élections, piège à cons" ? He told his son-in-law Alain de Boissieu, "I do not want to give them a chance to attack the Élysée. Details about 1968 Charles De Gaulle President French Parliamentary Election Wirephoto 8X10. Bless their hearts. Previous Section Arts and Entertainment, 1945-1968; The Presidential Election of 1960 White House, District of Columbia. They were held in the aftermath of the events of May 1968. The resulting casualties could have incited a revolution, with the military moving from the provinces to retake Paris as in 1871. [5][17] A survey taken immediately after the crisis found that 20% of Frenchmen would have supported a revolution, 23% would have opposed it, and 57% would have avoided physical participation in the conflict. Richard Nixon Republican National Convention acceptance speech 1968. The ELECTION OF 1968 The presidential election of 1968 was one of the most chaotic in American history, reflecting a time that was in many ways equally chaotic. George McGovern got 17 electoral votes. https://amzn.to/3fdakiZMr. Many of the nation's more mainstream singers and poets joined after the police brutality came to light. While the crowd dispersed, some began to create barricades out of whatever was at hand, while others threw paving stones, forcing the police to retreat for a time. Orange denotes states won by Wallace/LeMay, as well as a faithless elector in North Carolina who casted his electoral vote for Wallace/LeMay instead of Nixon/Agnew. "When the National Assembly becomes a bourgeois theater, all the bourgeois theaters should be turned into national assemblies." On Monday, 6 May, the national student union, the Union Nationale des Étudiants de France(UNEF)—still th… On Friday, 10 May, another huge crowd congregated on the Rive Gauche. FRENCH LEFT AND 1968 ELECTIONS 541 to De Gaulle as an attractive political leader. On 30 May 1968, in a radio speech, President De Gaulle, who had… Premier Georges Pompidou makes an address to the French people tonight at his Matignon residence in Western France after the electorate gave the Gaullist party a landslide victory in the second round of the nation's legislative elections. Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0 unless otherwise noted. On 22 March far-left groups, a small number of prominent poets and musicians, and 150 students occupied an administration building at Paris University at Nanterre and held a meeting in the university council room dealing with class discrimination in French society and the political bureaucracy that controlled the university's funding. No need to register, buy now! The interviews were obtained by L'Institut Francais d'Opinion Publique during the week following the second round of voting in the 1968 election. For a list of top election map choices for the 2012 presidential election, visit Best Election Maps. I have decided to leave: nobody attacks an empty palace." The next day, they joined the students, teachers and increasing numbers of young workers who gathered at the Arc de Triomphe to demand that: Negotiations broke down, and students returned to their campuses after a false report that the government had agreed to reopen them, only to discover the police still occupying the schools. President: George Wallace Vice-President: Curtis LeMay United States presidential election of 1968, American presidential election held on November 5, 1968, in which Republican Richard M. Nixon defeated Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey. 1968 Press Photo Premier Georges Pompidou gives election results speech, France This is an original press photo. Damamme, Gobille, Matonti & Pudal, ed., p. 190. Wallace's tally of 46 marks the most recent election that a 3rd party candidate has won Electoral Votes; Nixon won North Carolina; however one elector cast a … Following months of conflicts between students and authorities at the Nanterre campus of the University of Paris (now Paris Nanterre University), the administration shut down the university on 2 May 1968. A union-led general strike on 13 May included 200,000 in a march. Had the rebellion occupied key public buildings in Paris, the government would have had to use force to retake them. The 1968 Presidential election was one of the most significant in American History. French presidential election: results since 1965 - Infogram Historical Background. Related: The Map that Started the Red and Blue Election Map Trend. This led to a near revolutionary fervor among the students. Events of May 1968, student revolt that began in a suburb of Paris and was soon joined by a general strike eventually involving some 10 million workers. It was held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. French legislative elections took place on June 23 and 30, 1968 to elect the 4th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. Instead, the protesters became even more active. 23:02. [9] While the military was free of revolutionary sentiment, using an army mostly of conscripts the same age as the revolutionaries would have been very dangerous for the government. 1968 Acton by-election; 1968 Dudley by-election; 1968 London local elections France - France - Education: The organization of national education is highly centralized. A counter-demonstration organised by the Gaullist party on 29 May in central Paris gave De Gaulle the confidence to dissolve the National Assembly and call for parliamentary elections for 23 June 1968. We need a moment of national unity like that now. Huge collection, amazing choice, 100+ million high quality, affordable RF and RM images. Opinion: After a bitter election in 1968, the transition came off without a hitch. The government banned a number of leftist organizations. The university's administration called the police, who surrounded the university. '"[9] Nonetheless, in the weeks that followed, approximately 401 popular action committees were set up in Paris and elsewhere to take up grievances against the government and French society, including the Sorbonne Occupation Committee. This election was between United States President Richard Nixon and Senator of South Dakota George McGovern.Richard Nixon won the election by a landslide (winning 49 of 50 states). 23 results. 4th National Assembly by Parliamentary Group, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left, Republican Alliance for the Progress and Liberties, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1968_French_legislative_election&oldid=977098778, Articles lacking sources from February 2008, Pages using bar box without float left or float right, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Abstention: 20.04% (1st round); 22.17% (2nd round), This page was last edited on 6 September 2020, at 22:54. 64 results. [9], Pompidou unsuccessfully requested that military radar be used to follow de Gaulle's two helicopters, but soon learned that he had gone to the headquarters of the French military in Germany, in Baden-Baden, to meet General Jacques Massu. How to be charismatic – backed by science; Sept. 22, 2020. John Hospers got one electoral vote by a Virginia faithless elector.. Contrary to de Gaulle's fears, his party won the greatest victory in French parliamentary history in the legislative election held in June, taking 353 of 486 seats versus the Communists' 34 and the Socialists' 57. 1968’s presidential election looks a lot like today’s – but it was very different October 22, 2020 8.26am EDT David Stebenne , The Ohio State University While the workers went back to their jobs, Prime Minister Georges Pompidou campaigned for the "defence of the Republic" in the face of the "communist threat" and called for the "silent majority" to make themselves heard. 1968 Belgian general election; 1968 Danish parliamentary election; 1968 Icelandic presidential election; 1968 Italian general election; 1968 Luxembourgian legislative election; 1968 Swedish general election; France. 1968 Election Facts. The de Gaulle administration's attempts to quell those strikes by police action only inflamed the situation further, leading to street battles with the police in the Latin Quarter, Paris. Detailed national-level Presidential Election Results for 1968. Pages in category "1968 elections in France" ... 1968 French Senate election; Last edited on 3 September 2020, at 15:19. The questionnaire dealt extensively with the worker strikes and student rebellions of May and June 1968. The run-up to the 1968 election was transformed in 1967 when Minnesota’s Democratic senator, Eugene J. McCarthy, The Grenelle accords concluded on 27 May, between the government, trade unions and employers, won significant wage gains for workers. "[18], With de Gaulle's closest advisors stating that they did not know what the president intended, Pompidou scheduled a tentative appearance on television at 8 p.m.[17] The national government had effectively ceased to function. The police then responded with tear gas and charged the crowd again. That it did not also guard Paris City Hall despite reports of that being the Communists' target was evidence of governmental chaos. [2][3], The unrest began with a series of student occupation protests against capitalism, consumerism, American imperialism and traditional institutions. FOX News Videos via Yahoo News The government had leaked to the media that the army was outside Paris. The Ultimate American Presidential Election Book: Every Presidential Election in American History (1788-2016) is now available! That said, during the course of the movement, references to the war in Vietnam were largely eclipsed by a whole series of slogans inspired by situationism and anarchism (even surrealism) that covered the walls ("The walls are the word"). In Paris, Phillipe Metherion, 26, was stabbed to death during an argument among demonstrators. 1968 French legislative election; United Kingdom. Opponents Edmund Muskie (191), Curtis E. LeMay (46) Notes American Independent Party candidate Wallace received 9,906,473 popular votes for President. 1968 Presidential General Election Results. More than 20,000 students, teachers and supporters marched towards the Sorbonne, still sealed off by the police, who charged, wielding their batons, as soon as the marchers approached. Violence evaporated almost as quickly as it arose. The student occupations and general strikes initiated across France were met with forceful confrontation by university administrators and police.