French President Emmanuel Macron has mentioned he is not going to “ask forgiveness” from Algeria for colonization however hopes to proceed working towards reconciliation along with his counterpart Abdelmajid Tebboune.
“It’s not up to me to ask forgiveness, that’s not what this is about, that word would break all of our ties,” he mentioned in an interview for Le Point journal printed late Wednesday.
“The worst thing would be to decide: ‘we apologize and each go our own way,'” Macron mentioned.
“Work on memory and history isn’t a settling of all accounts,” he added.
But within the interview, he additionally expressed hope that Tebboune “will be able to come to France in 2023,” to return Macron’s personal journey to Algiers final yr and proceed their “unprecedented work of friendship.”
France’s 100-year colonization of Algeria and the viciously fought 1954-62 warfare for independence have left deep scars on either side, which Macron has by turns prodded and soothed over his political profession.
In 2017, then-presidential candidate Macron dubbed the French occupation a “crime against humanity.”
A report he commissioned from historian Benjamin Stora really helpful in 2020 additional strikes to reconcile the 2 international locations whereas ruling out “repentance” and “apologies.”
Macron has additionally questioned whether or not Algeria existed as a nation earlier than being colonized by France, drawing an offended response from Algiers.
“These moments of tension teach us,” Macron informed the Algerian author Kamel Daoud within the interview.
“You have to be able to reach out your hand again and engage, which President Tebboune and I have been able to do,” he added.
He backed a suggestion for Tebboune to go to the graves of Algerian Nineteenth-century anti-colonial hero Abdelkader and his entourage, who’re buried in Amboise in central France.
“That would make sense for the history of the Algerian people. For the French people, it would be an opportunity to understand realities that are often hidden,” Macron mentioned.
Algeria and France keep enduring ties by immigration, involvement within the independence battle and post-war repatriations of French settlers, touching greater than 10 million folks dwelling in France at present.
