The French president has assured that he is “determined” to “continue the work of memory, truth and reconciliation” with Algeria regarding French colonisation.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday he was “determined” to “continue the work of memory, truth and reconciliation” with Algeria over French colonization, despite recurring tensions between the two countries.
The head of state met with a joint commission of historians and expressed his hope that the ongoing work would be completed and that “the concrete proposals put forward by the joint commission” would be implemented, the Elysée Palace told AFP today.
Macron “hopes that these proposals will enable the country to look lucidly at the past and to build, in the long term, a reconciliation of memories, within the framework of a process of education and transmission to the young people of France and Algeria,” the French presidency added.
In August 2022, Emmanuel Macron and his counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune decided to relaunch bilateral relations by creating the joint commission of historians.
But this work, which had already been started by the French side with the historian Benjamin Stora, remains suspended due to the recurring diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
The new dispute over Western Sahara once again complicates the resolution of reconciliation issues, which remain an open wound 60 years after Algeria’s independence.
The national narrative of the Algerian war is omnipresent in Algerian political life. On August 20, President Tebboune, now re-elected, referred to it on Moudjahid (war veterans) Day, recalling the colonial past of a France that “believed it could smother the popular revolution with iron and fire.”
The tumultuous bilateral relationship had already suffered a severe blow in the autumn of 2021, when Emmanuel Macron described the Algerian regime as a “political-military system built on commemorative revenues”.
During the work of the commission of historians, Algiers asked Paris to return the skulls of colonial resisters and historical and symbolic objects from 19th century Algeria, including objects belonging to Emir Abdelkader, the anti-colonial hero (1808-1883).
Source: Observadora
