While ten days ago, the Algerian president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune demanded from Paris “total respect for the Algerian state”, it is now France which calls on Algiers to “respect” its sovereignty.

“The Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs last week recalled France's deep attachment to respect for Algerian sovereignty.

It goes without saying that we also expect all our partners to respect our sovereignty, ”the Quai d'Orsay affirmed on Wednesday.

This statement comes in reaction to the words of the Algerian ambassador to France last Thursday.

Mohamed Antar Daoud, called on the Algerian community in France to invest in both Algeria and France.

"It is unacceptable that Algeria, which has the largest foreign community in France with 18 consulates, cannot constitute a control lever to intervene not only in Algerian policy, but (also) at the level of French policy", he said on the occasion of a commemoration of the massacre of October 17, 1961.

Attempts at appeasement

These exchanges take place in a tense context between Paris and Algiers, after the words of Emmanuel Macron reported by the French daily Le Monde which accused the Algerian "politico-military" system of maintaining a "memorial rent" by serving its people a "Official story" which "is not based on truths". Relations between France and Algeria are still haunted by the Algerian war, which pitted the French state against Algerian separatists from 1954 to 1962.

As important anniversaries approach, such as those of the Evian agreements of March 18, 1962 ending the war, Emmanuel Macron has multiplied memorial initiatives, in an unprecedented approach in France to try to appease the memory of this conflict which still affects millions of inhabitants.

He commissioned the historian Benjamin Stora for a report on the issue, and made several symbolic gestures towards Algeria such as the return of the remains of independence fighters from the 19th century or the recognition of the assassination of Algerian lawyer Ali. Boumendjel in 1957.

On Saturday, the French president denounced for the first time "crimes inexcusable for the Republic", on the occasion of an official ceremony for the 60th anniversary of the massacre by the French police of Algerian demonstrators on October 17, 1961 in Paris.

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Massacre of October 17, 1961: Algeria wants a treatment of history far from "colonialist thought"

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Massacre of October 17, 1961: "The police threw Algerians dead, knocked out or still alive in the Seine"

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