On Tuesday, members of the Algerian parliament passed a law making the massacres of May 8, 1945 a "day of memory" so that French "colonial crimes" in the country would not be forgotten.
Representatives voted unanimously on the law presented by the government during a public session attended by the Minister of Mujahideen, Tayeb Zaitouni.
While presenting the bill, Zaitouni stressed that "French colonialism did not hesitate to suppress the demonstrators with a fierce campaign that left tens of thousands of victims who were subjected to the worst forms of torture, abuse, brutal brutality and killing."
It is reported that on May 8, 1945 - while the colonial France of Algeria was celebrating its victory in the war against the Nazis - the Algerians went out in demonstrations carrying Algerian flags to demand independence in the cities of Setif, Guelma and Kharata, in the east of the country.
The French occupation forces suppressed the demonstrators by force, resulting in thousands of deaths. And the Algerians speak of at least 45 thousand dead, while the number of victims for the French authorities reached between 15 thousand and 20 thousand dead, including 103 Europeans.
Speaker of Parliament Suleiman Shanin said that "the requirement to include a law criminalizing colonialism is a popular demand and not only the demand of parliamentarians, government, or sovereign administrations."
A deputy from the National Liberation Front party - which has a majority in the assembly - considered that "France has to admit its crimes in Algeria during the colonial period and it has to apologize for that."
The law came at the request of Algerian President Abdel Majid Taboun on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the "May 8 massacres," and he described them as "crimes against humanity and against civilizational values, because its goal was ethnic cleansing to replace foreign residents with indigenous people."
It is noteworthy that French President Emmanuel Macron said before his arrival to power that colonialism is a "crime against humanity" and "barbarism", which sparked critical reactions from the French right.
This was in February 2017, in an interview with an Algerian channel and during the French presidential election campaign.