The Head of State, candidate for a new mandate, affirmed that he intended to continue to "reach out" to the Algerian authorities, even if the initiatives taken since the beginning of the five-year term have not made it possible to improve the relations between Algiers and Paris.

"I assume this outstretched hand" to Algeria, he declared in front of 200 guests gathered for a sober ceremony at the Elysee Palace, which was not attended by any Algerian official even if the ambassador in Paris had been invited. .

"Many will tell me: you are doing all this, but you are not serious because Algeria is not moving (...) All my predecessors have faced the same thing," he said.

But "I think the day will come when Algeria will take this path".

In his speech, which did not include any new announcement, Emmanuel Macron recalled all the memorial gestures undertaken since the start of the five-year term, part of which was based on a highly publicized report submitted by historian Benjamin Stora, a specialist in colonization and the war in Algeria.

Since 2018, he has thus recognized the responsibility of the French army in the death of the communist mathematician Maurice Audin and that of the nationalist lawyer Ali Boumendjel during the battle of Algiers in 1957. He also received separately at the Elysée harkis and "Black Feet".

Ceremony in memory of the victims of the Algerian war, 60 years after the signing of the Evian agreements, on March 19, 2022 at the Père Lachaise cemetery, in Paris THOMAS COEX AFP

In addition, a stele in memory of Abd el-Kader, Algerian national hero of the refusal of the French colonial presence, was erected in France in Amboise (Indre-et-Loire) and the skulls of Algerian resistance fighters of the 19th century returned to Algeria.

"deep fractures"

But Algiers, which is demanding an official apology from France for colonization, did not follow up on this work of memory, and even reacted strongly when Emmanuel Macron reproached the Algerian "politico-military" system in October for maintain a "memorial rent" around the war of independence.

On Friday, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said the memorial file must "inevitably be handled in a responsible and fair manner in a climate of frankness and trust".

But the "hideous crimes of colonization will not be forgotten and cannot be time-barred", he warned in a message on the occasion of this anniversary, celebrated in Algeria as a "Victory Day".

To commemorate the Evian Accords, the Elysee had invited a hundred high school and college students around witnesses of all memories related to the Algerian war: conscripts, independence fighters, harkis and returnees.

The president of the National Union of Harkis (UNH), Messaoud Guerfi, at the Elysée Palace, on March 19, 2022, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Evian agreements GONZALO FUENTES POOL / AFP

The floor was given to four of them who participate in the "History and memories of the Algerian war" program and work together in schools.

"This war has generated deep fractures. It is time that we make these wounded memories a force to build together", pleaded Marie-Rose Antoine, daughter of black feet.

This 60th anniversary was also invited in the presidential campaign.

From Loiret, Marine Le Pen (RN) reaffirmed that "colonization had contributed to the development of Algeria", as "many Algerians" admit, according to her.

"Under the mandate of Emmanuel Macron, history is not balanced. As long as the only policy remains to spend one's life apologizing without asking anything in return from an Algerian government that continues to insult the France (…) we will not achieve this balance”, she judged.

The reception of harkis in France Sylvie HUSSON AFP

Another candidate for the far right, Eric Zemmour claimed in a tribune at Le Figaro a relationship with Algeria "with respect but without repentance".

The LR candidate Valérie Pécresse for her part undertook on Friday to find "another date" of commemoration than March 19 because "80% of the civilian victims fell after the Evian agreements".

"The President of the Republic, with his memorial gestures, only fuels our suffering" because "March 19 is a wound for the French in Algeria", reacted to AFP Nicole Ferrandis, president of the Association of the victims of March 26, in reference to the shooting of the Rue d'Isly in Algiers on March 26, 1962.

This date of March 19 "was neither the beginning of peace nor the end of the war" but it "was a milestone" which "cannot be denied", recognized Emmanuel Macron.

© 2022 AFP