PARIS -- While a French Institute of Public Opinion survey found that 78 percent of French society believes that the 1968 May revolution was an important event in the history of the nation, views on the social merits and demerits is still mixed.

"I am a victim of the 1968 (May revolution) generation," claims a young French woman in a roughly 2 1/2 minute video "declaration of war" uploaded onto the internet in 2012. The producer of the video is conservative youth group "Generation Identity," which is based in France but has branch organizations throughout Europe. With a rise in immigrants, the group was formed with the ideal of protecting their identity as Europeans.

In 2017 alone, there were over 100,000 applications for refugee status to enter France -- the highest number in history. Generation member Romain Espino, 24, criticized, "The 'tolerant society' built up and pushed by the leftists during the May revolution gave birth to the issue of immigrants moving to Europe."

This year on May Day, May 1, labor union demonstrations cropped up all over France opposing President Emmanuel Macron's reforms. A portion of the protestors also became violent, lighting the location of American fast food giant McDonald's on fire along with other shops.

"The protests were the same as those by the leftists today," said Espino disapprovingly. One of the sparks that lit the flame of the May revolution involved an attack on the Paris branch of U.S. credit card company American Express. "Destructive activities pushing individual wants accomplished nothing."

Eric Zemmour, a 59-year-old columnist for conservative newspaper Le Figaro, pointed out, "By rejecting divisions created by the patriarchy, religion, nationality, gender -- all identity has been destroyed." He added, "Even while people called for their rights in the name of freedom, no one has come to take responsibility for society anymore."

In recent years, the support base of far-right National Front political party has expanded, and the party's condemnation of the May revolution has stood out. Of this development, 65-year-old Laurent Joffrin, editor of the left-leaning Liberation newspaper said, "They are just spreading the lie that freedom came at the cost of their identities, and connecting current dissatisfaction with the baseless nostalgic claim that 'things were better before.'" He wondered, "Do they really want to return to a society where long work hours and gender inequality still exists?"

During the 1968 unrest, Joffrin was attending a high school in the student area of Paris' Latin Quarter, which became the battle ground between police and May revolution protesters. Within the school, talks between students and teachers continued for days. As a result of the negotiations, he said the students were granted their requests to have the lecture podium removed to facilitate a more equal relationship between students and teachers, and the school ban on long hair abolished.

More than ever, negative evaluations of the 1968 protests are rising to the surface of public discourse. When asked his own opinion about what the May revolution was, Joffrin replied, "Each citizen of the nation tried to acquire their own ideals of freedom, equality and respect as an individual, including trivial things like me and my high school classmates. It may look complicated, but the event really was that simple."

(Japanese original by Isamu Gaari, Paris Bureau)