1958 Those Who Said No

On October 4 2018 France celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Fifth Republic It is a republic born in the throes of the Algerian War and one whichfrom the day it was founded by General de Gaulle until the presidency of a very Jupiterian Emmanuel Macronhas been assailed as a Republican monarchy by partisans of a more assertive parliamentarian state By revisiting the struggle of those who dared oppose the new regime only to suffer a crushing defeat on September 28 1958 when they were barely able to garner 20 of the vote against the constitutional text this film shines a powerful new light on the origins of the Fifth Republic and its consequences for the next 60 years It is a constitutional debate that planted the seeds for a complete upheaval of the French political landscape on the left in particular and set the country in motion toward what would be called the Union of the Left