French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed yesterday evening, Wednesday, that he does not have to ask the Algerians for "forgiveness" for France's colonization of their country, but he hopes to receive his Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune in Paris this year to continue working with him on the file of memory and friendship between the two countries.

Macron said - in a lengthy interview conducted with him by the Algerian writer Kamel Daoud and published by the French weekly "Le Point" - "I do not have to ask for forgiveness, this is not the topic. Limiting to this word would sever all ties."

The French President explained that "the worst that can happen is to say: We apologize and each of us goes our own way," stressing that "the work of memory and history is not an inventory of dues, it is quite the opposite."

He explained that the work of memory and history "means acknowledging that there are indescribable things within it, things that cannot be understood, things that cannot be resolved, things that may not be forgiven."

The issue of France's apology for its colonial past in Algeria (1830-1962) is at the heart of bilateral relations and the recurring tensions between the two countries.

In 2020, Algeria half-heartedly received a report prepared by the French historian Benjamin Stora, upon assignment from Macron, in which he called for a series of initiatives to achieve reconciliation between the two countries.

The report was devoid of any recommendation to offer an apology or express remorse, which is what Algeria has constantly demanded.

In his interview, the French president said, "I hope that President Tebboune will be able to come to France in 2023" to continue "a work of friendship ... which I consider unprecedented between the two countries" after the visit that Macron himself made to Algeria in August 2022.

In response to a question about whether it would be possible for Tebboune's upcoming visit to France to include the participation of the guest president in a ceremony honoring him in front of the Algerian Emir Abdelkader monument in the cemetery of the heroes of the resistance to colonialism in the town of Amboise (southwest of Paris), Macron said that something like this would be a "beautiful moment." Very, very strong."

"I hope so," he added.

Macron considered that holding such a ceremony "will have meaning in the history of the Algerian people. For the French people, it will be an opportunity to understand often hidden truths."

Prince Abdelkader (1808-1883) was an Algerian political and military leader who was known for his resistance to the French occupation and was imprisoned in Amboise with many of his family members from 1848 to 1852.

Macron doubled the initiatives in the memory file, acknowledging the responsibility of the French army in the killing of the mathematician Maurice Audin and the national lawyer Ali Boumendjel during the "Battle of Algeria" in 1957, and denouncing the "unwarranted crimes" committed by the French army during the massacre of Algerian demonstrators in Paris in October 17, 1961.

However, the apologies that Algeria was waiting for for its colonization never came, and this frustrated Macron's initiatives and increased misunderstandings between the two sides.

Macron's visit to Algeria last August helped put bilateral relations back on track after the crisis sparked by statements made by the French President in October 2021, in which he accused the Algerian "military political system" of creating a "memory rent", and questioned Likewise, the existence of an Algerian nation before colonialism.

In his interview with Le Point, Macron acknowledged the error of his statements and said, "It may be a clumsy phrase and it may have hurt the feelings" of the Algerians, considering at the same time that "these moments of tension teach us; you have to know how to extend your hand again."