Algeria Files - Part 6
SI-S1 · Elysee Palace Paris
2017: "a crime against humanity." 2021: "no repentance. No apologies." Same president. Both on the public record.
February 16 2017, Macron told Algerian television that colonisation was "a crime against humanity" and that France must apologise. January 20 2021, the Elysee stated "no repentance nor apologies" on the same day the Stora report was submitted. Germany apologised to Namibia for genocide the same year. France did not apologise to Algeria.
SI-S2 · Stora report 2021
January 20 2021 · Benjamin Stora · 160 pages · No apology02 / 07
January 20 2021. The Stora report submitted. 160 pages on memory. No apology recommended.
Macron commissioned historian Benjamin Stora in 2018 to assess Franco-Algerian memorial history. The report, "Les questions mémorielles portant sur la colonisation et la guerre d'Algérie," was submitted on January 20 2021. Stora himself stated he was not in favour of a formal apology. The Elysee stated the same day: "no repentance nor apologies." Symbolic acts would follow instead.
The Contemporary French Civilization journal, published by Liverpool University Press in 2023, documented the Elysee's response verbatim: "while it planned to carry out symbolic acts of reconciliation in response to the report, that neither repentance nor formal apologies would be extended to Algeria." VOA News confirmed the Elysee's position on January 20 2021.
Source: VOA News, January 20 2021 · Al Jazeera, January 20 2021 · Contemporary French Civilization, Liverpool University Press, 2023
SI-S3 · Press conference podium microphone
February 16 2017 · Echourouk News Algiers · "crime against humanity" · Macron's own words03 / 07
"It's a crime. It's a crime against humanity. It's truly barbarous and we must apologise." Macron. February 16 2017.
In February 2017, during his presidential campaign, Macron told the Algerian television channel Echourouk News: "It's a crime. It's a crime against humanity. It's truly barbarous and it's part of a past that we need to confront by apologising to those against whom we committed these acts." France 24 reported the statement on February 16 2017.
Four years later as president, the Elysee stated the opposite. Foreign Policy documented the contradiction directly in February 2021: "Quite how this statement fits in with the latest words from the Elysee Palace is anyone's guess, but the contradiction between 2017 and 2021 reveals a great deal about Macron's abject cynicism when it comes to attaining his self-serving political goals."
Source: France 24, February 16 2017 · Foreign Policy, February 1 2021, Nabila Ramdani
SI-S4 · Diplomatic signing table two empty chairs
Germany · Namibia · May 2021 · Herero and Nama genocide · Formal apology and 1.1 billion euros04 / 07
Germany formally apologised to Namibia in 2021 for genocide. 1.1 billion euros. France has made no equivalent offer to Algeria.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas stated in May 2021: "We will officially call what happened a genocide." The statement referred to the Herero and Nama genocide of 1904 to 1908, in which an estimated 65,000 to 80,000 people were killed under German colonial rule in what is now Namibia. Germany committed 1.1 billion euros in development funding as part of the apology framework.
Japan has made repeated official apologies to South Korea for colonial-era abuses. Australia has apologised to its Aboriginal peoples. South Africa has a documented truth and reconciliation process. France is the only major former European colonial power that has not made a formal apology to Algeria. France 24 and BBC both covered the German-Namibian apology in May 2021.
Source: BBC, May 28 2021 · German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas statement, May 2021
SI-S5 · Simple graves French cemetery
The harkis · September 2021 · Macron apologised to them · Not to Algeria05 / 07
Macron apologised to the harkis in September 2021. He did not apologise to Algeria. The distinction is documented.
The harkis were Algerians who served in the French military during the Algerian War. After independence in 1962, approximately 90,000 harkis were repatriated to France, where many were held in camps in poor conditions for years. In September 2021, Macron offered a formal apology to the harkis and their descendants for France's treatment of them.
The same month, Macron was reported by Le Monde and others to have privately questioned whether Algeria had existed as a nation before French colonisation and accused the Algerian government of rewriting history. Algeria recalled its ambassador from Paris in October 2021. France simultaneously restricted the number of visas issued to Algerians.
Source: Le Monde, September 2021 · Reuters, October 2021 · Al Jazeera, October 2021
SI-S6 · French and Algerian diplomatic documents
October 2021 · Algeria recalls ambassador · Diplomatic rupture · Continuing 202406 / 07
Algeria recalled its ambassador from Paris in October 2021. The diplomatic rupture has not been resolved.
Algeria recalled its ambassador from Paris in October 2021 after Macron's reported questioning of Algeria's pre-colonial existence. France had simultaneously cut by half the number of visas issued to Algerian nationals, citing irregular migration. The relationship has remained strained through 2024.
The contradiction at the centre of the Franco-Algerian relationship is documented in its own diplomatic record: France is simultaneously Algeria's largest trading partner, the home of an Algerian diaspora estimated at 800,000 to 1.5 million, and the country that has refused to acknowledge the full scope of what 132 years of colonisation produced.
Source: Al Jazeera, October 2021 · Reuters, October 2021 · Le Monde diplomatic coverage 2021-2024
SI-S7 · French flag reflected in Algiers window
The question. Not a claim.07 / 07
Germany apologised to Namibia. Macron called colonialism a crime against humanity. Then the Elysee said no repentance. What is the distance between a crime against humanity and an apology, and who decides when that distance is acceptable?
Next week: the final two episodes. The living wound that is still open today. The diaspora. The 2005 riots. The harkis. The 2024 rupture. Then: what Algeria built from nothing after 132 years of erasure. Literacy 10 percent to 80 percent. The question is not about France. The question is about what survives.
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