French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed, in an interview published Wednesday evening, that he will not ask Algerians for “pardon” for the French colonization of their country, but hopes to receive his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, in Paris this year for continue to work with him on the dossier of remembrance and reconciliation between the two countries.
And in a long interview conducted with him by the Algerian writer, Kamel Daoud, and published by the weekly “Le PuntoFrench, on Wednesday evening, Macron said: “I don’t have to ask for forgiveness, that’s not the goal. The word will cut all ties.
“The worst thing that can happen is to say that we apologize and each of us goes our own way”, said the French president, underlining that “the work of memory and history is not a computational inventory, it is quite the opposite “.
He explained that the work of memory and history “means recognizing that there are things that cannot be described, things that cannot be understood, things that cannot be felt, things that cannot be forgiven”.
The issue of France’s apology for its colonial past in Algeria (1830-1962) is at the heart of bilateral relations and recurring tensions between the two countries, according to AFP.
In 2020, Algeria reluctantly received a report prepared by the French historian Benjamin Stora, on behalf of Macron, in which he called for a series of initiatives to achieve reconciliation between the two countries. The report lacked any recommendation to offer an apology or express remorse, which is what Algeria is constantly demanding.
In his interview, the French president said: “I hope that President Tebboune can come to France in 2023” to continue an “unprecedented work of friendship (…)” after the visit that Macron himself made to Algeria in August 2022.
In response to a question on whether Tebboune’s forthcoming visit to France could include the participation of the visiting president in an honorific ceremony in front of the monument of the Emir, Abdelkader Al-Jazaery, in the cemetery of heroes of resistance to colonialism in the city of Amboise (southwest of Paris), Macron said such an issue would be “A very beautiful and very powerful moment.”
“I hope so,” he added.
Macron believed that holding such a ceremony “will have significance in the history of the Algerian people. For the French people it will be an opportunity to understand often hidden truths”.
Prince Abdelkader (1808-1883) was arrested in Amboise with several members of his family from 1848 to 1852.
Macron doubled down on demarches in the memorial file, acknowledging the French army’s responsibility for the killing of mathematician Maurice Audin and national lawyer Ali Bumengel during the 1957 “Battle of Algeria”, and denouncing the “unjustified crimes” committed by the French army during the massacre of Algerian demonstrators in Paris on October 17, 1961.
However, the apology Algeria expected for its colonization never came, which frustrated Macron’s initiatives and increased the misunderstandings between the two sides, according to AFP.
Macron’s trip to Algeria last August helped put bilateral relations back on track after the crisis triggered by statements made by the French president in October 2021 accusing Algeria’s “military political system” of creating a “memory tear” and also questioned the existence of an Algerian nation before colonialism. .
In his interview with Le Point, Macron acknowledged the error of his statements.
He said: “It may have been an awkward sentence and may have hurt the feelings” of the Algerians, considering at the same time that “these moments of tension teach us. We need to know how to reach out again”.
Macron has also called for “calming” tensions between Algeria and Morocco, ruling out a war between the two bitter neighbors.
Algeria severed diplomatic ties between it and Morocco in August 2021, accusing Rabat of committing “hostile acts”, in a decision Rabat deemed “totally unjustified”.
