50 Years of the 1968 Student Revolt

Students holding a pamphlet and a flag, recalling the student demonstrations that swept Belgium in May 1968 amid broader sociocultural upheaval. These events, now fifty years past, had nationwide significance and left a lasting mark on Belgian politics and subsequent constitutional reforms. The Utrecht mint mark (caduceus) and the Belgian mint master's mark (arms of Herzele) appear to the left, together with the year 2018 and the country code BE. Immediately below, the initials LL of designer Luc Luycx. In the background, an auditorium that echoes the student setting.

May 1968 did not hit Belgium as an isolated phenomenon but as part of a Europe-wide wave of protest that left particularly deep marks in the country. At the universities of Liège, Brussels and Ghent, students occupied lecture halls, demanded the democratisation of the education system and fundamentally challenged social hierarchies. What became world-famous in France under the label "May '68" had its own dynamic in Belgium: the protests became intertwined with the long-simmering language dispute between Flemings and Walloons, and accelerated a social liberalisation that permanently transformed the country in the decades that followed.

The political aftershocks of the events of 1968 reached well into the 1970s in Belgium. Trade unions, student organisations and progressive parties picked up the movement's impulses; higher-education reform, new co-determination rights, and a changed relationship between the state and civil society trace back substantially to this upheaval. To mark the 50th anniversary of the events, Belgium issued a 2-euro commemorative coin in 2018, recalling a turning point that has permanently shaped Belgian self-understanding and political culture.