The spectacle of de Gaulle’s coup d’état: The Situationists on de Gaulle’s coming to power

This article analyses the Situationists’ reading of the situation in May–June 1958 when Charles de Gaulle came to power in France in the middle of the Algerian civil war, which threatened to tear France apart. The Situationists analysed the dramatic events as a counter-revolution not unlike previous historical events where counter-revolutionary figures like Louis Bonaparte and Franco derailed potentially revolutionary developments. In that regard de Gaulle came to represent the spectacle (le spectacle) and its blockade of revolutionary energies for the Situationist group. De Gaulle’s extremely conscious staging of himself as the saviour of France and his ability to use the new medium of television presented the Situationists with an example of how the modern capitalist state sought to fix people in a passive situation unable to intervene and take control of their lives.