Algeria marks, Tuesday, July 5, the 60th anniversary of its independence, during a celebration with great pomp, culminating in an imposing military parade in the capital.

In a sign of the importance of the occasion for power, a special logo, circular in shape and adorned with 60 stars, was designed to mark the anniversary, with the slogan "A glorious history and a new era".

After almost eight years of war between Algerian insurgents and the French army, the guns fell silent on March 18, 1962 under the terms of the historic Évian Accords, paving the way for Algeria to declare independence on July 5. of the same year, approved a few days earlier by 99.72% of the votes in a self-determination referendum.

Algeria is the only former French colony in Africa in the 1960s to free itself by arms from the tutelage of France.

But this victory snatched at the end of seven and a half years of war left hundreds of thousands dead, the memory of which remains a subject of tension between France and its former colony.

>> To read also: "Massacre of October 17, 1961: the proof that De Gaulle knew"

Checkered relationships

The wounds remain raw in Algeria as France rules out any "repentance" or "apologies", although French President Emmanuel Macron has endeavored since his election to soothe memories with a series of symbolic gestures.

"Sixty years after independence, isn't it time to dispassionate about this story?" Asks historian Amar Mohand-Amer.

"The two countries carry contradictory and irreconcilable memories", analysis on France 24 Brahim Oumansour, associate researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (Iris), according to whom it is up to historians and not to politicians to do the work on the memory issue.

The bilateral relationship seemed to have reached its lowest level in October when Emmanuel Macron claimed that Algeria had been built after its independence on a "memory rent", maintained by the "politico-military system", arousing ire from Algiers.

But relations have gradually warmed in recent months, and Emmanuel Macron and his Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune expressed their desire to "deepen" them in a telephone interview on June 18.

At the end of April, Abdelmadjid Tebboune congratulated Emmanuel Macron on his "brilliant" re-election and invited him to go to Algeria.

"The rapid return to a normal situation after the serious crisis of the last few months (...) is related to regional tensions, particularly in Libya, which should not be concealed or minimized", dissects Amar Mohand-Amer with the AFP.

"The very unstable regional geopolitics requires strong postures in the medium and long terms and the consolidation of political and economic relations between the two countries", adds the historian.

“Overall, relations between Algeria and France are very good, even if there have been sequences of tensions and diplomatic incidents,” recalls Brahim Oumansour.

"There has always been cooperation on security issues," he adds, citing Mali as an example and "Algeria's logistical support for Operation Barkhane."

"France has long been Algeria's leading trading partner, although it is now overtaken by China", underlines the Maghreb expert.

 >> To see, our webdoc: "Algerians, French: they tell their war in Algeria"

Opening archives

For the president of the opposition party Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), Athmane Mazouz, "relations between the power system in Algeria and official France have been punctuated by crises and pseudo-reunions since independence. from the country".

"At the current stage, no one can bet a penny to talk about rebuilding. The instrumentalization of this relationship on one side or the other does not escape anyone," he adds.

Last December, France opened its archives relating to legal cases and police investigations in Algeria at war against colonization.

A promise from the government when President Emmanuel Macron pledged to help historians shed light on the gray areas of France's action in Algeria, from the start of the independence uprising in 1954 until independence in 1962.

Historian Amar Mohand-Amer fears that Emmanuel Macron's policy of memorial reconciliation will be put to the test by the recent electoral successes in France of Marine Le Pen's far-right party, the National Rally.

Marine Le Pen had indeed reaffirmed in March that "colonization had contributed to the development of Algeria", reproaching the French president for a policy consisting in "spending his life apologizing without asking anything in return from an Algerian government which does not stop insulting France".

"The dazzling rise of the National Rally in the legislative elections in France does not bode well. The French far right will transform this mandate into a great memorial battlefield where revisionism and the falsification of history will be omnipresent", puts in guard Amar Mohand-Amer.

Domestically, the government took advantage of the anniversary to try to ease tensions, three years after being shaken by the Hirak pro-democracy demonstrations.

Abdelmadjid Tebboune indeed launched an initiative in May to break the political immobility by receiving in turn several leaders of political parties, including the opposition, and officials of trade union and employers' organisations.

12:09

It's in France.

© France 24

With AFP

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