ABSTRACT
Cohn-Bendit was the figure most indelibly associated with May 1968, when, as a sociology student at Nanterre, he advocated nonsectarian, broad-based direct action in a frequently jesting style that earned him the loathing of the PCF (Parti Communiste Français) as well as of the Gaullist regime, which deported him to Germany in the middle of the crisis. His greatest coup was perhaps to reappear at the Sorbonne barely a week afterwards, disguised in false beard and dark glasses. Yet his clowning was the vehicle for a profound, and often self-critical, political seriousness which has never abandoned the values of May 1968. He is currently a Frankfurt city councillor for the Green Party and a Euro MP.
