Without apology for the colonies ... Macron regards the occupation as a "grave mistake" and waives his pension

French President Emmanuel Macron considered that colonialism was a "grave mistake committed by the Republic", calling for the opening of a "new page" between France and its former colonies on the brown continent, while the French regime still refuses to formally apologize for that stage to a number of colonies.

Macron said - during a joint press conference with the president of Ivory Coast, Hassan Ouattara in Abidjan on Saturday - that "France is often seen today" as having "a dominant view and deceptive manifestations of colonialism that were a grave mistake, a mistake committed by the republic."

As the French President called for "building a new page" in the relationship between his country and its former African colonies, he said, "I belong to a generation who is not a generation of colonialism, the African continent is a young continent, three quarters of your countrymen have never known colonialism."

"Sometimes the young people blame France for the problems and difficulties that they may face and that France can do nothing about," he added.

The French President expressed his hope that "the young Africa agrees to build with the new France a much more fruitful friendship partnership."

During Macron’s famous visit to Algeria in 2017, observers confirmed that the file of the French occupation of Algeria was one of the thorny issues that characterized the visit, as Algeria adheres to an official French apology for the colonial crimes that lasted 132 years (1830-1962), which Paris rejects.

In February 2017, when he was still a presidential candidate, Macron told an Algerian channel that "colonialism is part of French history, it is a crime against humanity."

Waiver of retirement
On the other hand, the French presidency announced on Saturday that Macron decided to give up in advance of the pension that he is entitled to receive as a former president of the Republic when he leaves the Elysee Palace, in a move coinciding with a broad protest movement in the country against his project to reform the pension system.

Macron - who on Saturday celebrated his 42nd birthday and whose term lasts until 2022 - also decided not to join the French Constitutional Council when he becomes former president of the republic, the presidency said.

Former Presidents of the Republic are considered lifelong members of the Constitutional Council, with a salary of 13,500 euros per month.

Macron will be the first former president in the history of France to waive the pension that he is entitled to receive for life, as of the date of his departure from the Elysee Palace.

Currently, the net pension for each of the former presidents is 6222 euros per month, knowing that this amount is not subject, according to a law issued in 1955, to any condition in terms of the age of the former president or the number of years spent in the presidency or his income.

Macron's decision comes in the midst of a strike and demonstrations taking place in France in protest against his project to reform the pension system, along with the continued criticism of the yellow jackets of Macron's economic policies, which they see as being in the interest of the wealthy.