Macron present at the ceremony of 60 years of the massacre of October 17, 1961 in Paris
Peaceful Algerian demonstrators wait patiently after being arrested by the police in Paris on October 17, 1961. 60 years later, the total assessment of the bloody repression by the French police has still not been established.
© AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
For the first time, a French president will participate this Saturday, October 16, in the commemorations of the massacre of Algerians in Paris on October 17, 1961. Police repression of pro-independence Algerian demonstrators had killed dozens of people,
at the very least.
Emmanuel Macron will go to the Pont de Bezon foot in Colombes, where Algerians had been killed 60 years earlier, in an “
exceptional
”
gesture
, according to his entourage.
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The French president will lay a wreath, observe a minute of silence alongside the families of the victims, but he will not speak.
Instead, Emmanuel Macron chose to publish a text at the end of the commemorations to "
recognize the facts established by historians
", announced the Elysee.
Will he go so far as to speak
of state crime
?
The French presidency assures in any case that Emmanuel Macron "
will go further
" than his predecessor.
In 2012, his predecessor
François Hollande recognized the “
bloody repression
” of Algerians
, an event that has long been overlooked.
A gesture "
for ourselves
"
"
Neither denial, nor repentance
": this is the credo of Emmanuel Macron, who continues the memorial work initiated on the colonization and the war in Algeria, in particular
with the Stora report
.
However, these initiatives did not prevent
the cold snap in relations between Paris and Algiers in
early October, after
Emmanuel Macron's criticisms of the Algerian regime
.
The French presidency does not expect this memorial gesture to
improve things
: we are doing this "
for ourselves
", explains an adviser from the French Presidential Palace.
►
To read and listen also:
Large report on the massacre of October 17, 1961: will there be recognition of a state crime in the middle of Paris?
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