French President Emmanuel Macron concluded today, Tuesday, celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the end of the Algerian war, by praising the soldiers who fought the Algerians demanding independence. At the same time, French cities witnessed demonstrations and labor strikes calling for higher wages and denouncing the rise in prices.
Macron chose to remove the celebration of this anniversary, supervising a military ceremony in the courtyard of the Palace of Invalides in Paris and awarding 15 veteran fighters with decorations, including 11 recruits, without giving a speech.
And the Elysee Palace announced - in a statement - that "France expresses its great gratitude" to all the fighters who preserved their "republican conscience" and carried "alone" after 1962 "the burden of guilt" about this conflict, unlike the supporters of "French Algeria" who defected in an effort to prevent the country's independence. when it became inevitable.
A recruitment campaign was launched between 1954 and 1962, which included about one and a half million recruits, soldiers and activists to fight this war, which France for a long time contented itself with describing it as "the process" or "the events".
Starting in 1961, and after the failure of the "Algeria coup", which aimed to keep Algeria French, soldiers joined the "Secret Army Organization", which doubled the attacks and attacks in an effort to turn the course of history.
The French presidency stressed that the "vast majority" of the army "refused to violate the principles of the French Republic", while a "minority" spread "terror" but rather "terrorism".
The statement added that this minority "committed acts of torture, contrary to all the values of the republic."
Macron doubled the initiatives in the memory file, acknowledging France's responsibility for the murder of the anti-colonialist socialist mathematician Maurice Auden "under torture", and that the militant Algerian lawyer Ali Boumenjel was "tortured and killed" in the "Battle of Algiers" in 1957.
Work on the memory file with Algeria is difficult, especially on the issue of missing persons, and it is constantly witnessing tension.
Last August, Macron and his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, announced the establishment of a joint committee of historians to look into the colonial period since 1830.
Demonstrations demanding higher wages in France
On the other hand, thousands of people demonstrated in France on Tuesday to demand an increase in wages in the face of inflation, and to protest against forcing striking workers in refineries and fuel depots to work.
About 150 assembly points have been identified in the country, according to the General Federation of Labor, which organized this "mobilization and strike" day, along with other unions and youth organizations.
In Paris, a huge procession in which thousands of people participated in the afternoon, led by a banner calling for an increase in wages and "respect for the right to strike", amid expectations that this protest movement will lead to a complete confusion in the functioning of various basic facilities, the most important of which is transportation.
Hundreds of students went out in a number of secondary schools, where they suspended classes in solidarity with the protest movement;
While the government downplayed the response to the strike among education employees, saying that it just exceeded 6%.
This move comes at a time when the country is living in the midst of a continuous strike by refinery workers, which has led to a severe shortage of supplies to gas stations.