PARIS (AFP) – France will not apologize for its colonization of Algeria but will instead commemorate the violent history of its occupation of the North African country.
“There will be no repentance, there will be no apologies,” an adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron said ahead of the release of a much-anticipated report on the history of colonization and the Algerian War.
France was the colonial power in Algeria for 132 years and Algerians won their independence in 1962, after a seven-year war marked by atrocities including acts of torture. This bloody history has overshadowed relations between the countries.
Though a formal apology for the atrocities committed by France has been demanded by Algeria, France will instead endeavor to face up to its history. “Repentance is vanity, recognition is the truth. Truth is built with actions,” the Macron adviser said.
The report, commissioned by Macron and authored by historian Benjamin Stora, makes a list of recommendations including setting up a “truth and memory” commission, expanding the way colonization is taught in French schools and commemorating three important dates in the countries’ shared history.
“The president wants these initiatives to allow our country to take a lucid look at the wounds of the past, to build, over time, a reconciliation of memories,” a communiqué from the French presidency said.
The question of repentance and recognition of the violence of colonization remains a highly divisive issue in France, and not just among the far-right who have traditionally defended France’s colonial past.