Twenty-seven years after the genocide, the President of the Republic is in Rwanda on Thursday to mark the reconciliation between Paris and Kigali. A recent report pointed to France's responsibility for the massacres, but Emmanuel Macron did not plan to officially ask for forgiveness? But he will have to find the right words for a country that is necessarily still traumatized.
Emmanuel Macron arrived in Rwanda on Thursday morning.
The Head of State is to deliver a speech in Kigali announced as historic, 27 years after the genocide of Tutsis by Hutus, and while France's responsibility was recently pointed out in a report.
If the Elysee refuses to confirm the form that will be used here by the President of the Republic, there should be no official pardon.
"We hope to find the right words", simply explains a presidential adviser.
"I keep this image of people with machetes cheering on the French army"
These words will also be intended for genocide survivors, who expect a lot from Emmanuel Macron's speech. "Asking for forgiveness, it will not bring back our dead", agrees Pierre Kalinganiré, 16 years old in 1994 and miraculous survivor of the massacres. "But it is at least to recognize, whereas François Mitterrand said that the genocide in Rwanda did not mean anything, that we are equal."
In the past, resentment towards the French may have been great.
The work carried out for several years between Paris and Kigali calms tensions, but the memories are still vivid.
"The genocidaires celebrated when the French army arrived. I keep this image of people with machetes cheering on the French army," continues Pierre Kalinganiré.
"How do you want this image to disappear without a French politician saying: 'this France no longer exists'?"
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"Rwandans recognize the political courage to face history"
It is therefore this message that Emmanuel Macron must carry.
"The President does not travel 6000 km in the middle of a pandemic just to meditate. He really has the opportunity to write history," reassures a member of the delegation who will accompany the head of state.
Hervé Berville, member of the Côtes d'Armor born in Rwanda, is confident.
"The Rwandans note that in the approach of the President of the Republic, there is a sincerity, an additional step taken", assures the elected official, who is part of the French delegation.
"They recognize the political courage to look history in the face, and to make sure to move forward together, to turn a new page. And, basically, to work on subjects of common interest which are numerous", insists Hervé Berville.
"The opportunity to make the French right and left out of date"
The stake is all the greater as this Rwandan question goes far beyond the single story between Paris and Kigali.
Across the continent, France's attitude, its "heavy and overwhelming" responsibility, to use the words of the Duclert report, has left its mark.
So the Elysee would like to send a signal to Africa.
Finally, on the French scene, an apology in Rwanda would obviously provoke an outcry.
But they would shake up 27 years of embarrassment and unspoken words.
"This would be an opportunity to make the French right and left which have some responsibility for what happened" out of date, "theorizes a macronist.