French President Emmanuel Macron believes he has “not to apologize” to Algeria for colonization, because it would amount to a “balance of all accounts”. However, the latter hopes to welcome his President of the Republic, Abdelmajid Tebboune to France in 2023 to continue the work of memory and reconciliation between the two countries. This is what Macron said during his interview with the Algerian writer Kamel Daoud to the French weekly Le Point.
Indeed, concerning the French colonization in Algeria, Macron declares: “I do not have to ask for forgiveness, it is not the subject, the word would break all the bonds. I do not ask forgiveness from Algeria”. He talks about his vision of Franco-Algerian relations. Questioned at length on the “request for apologies” formulated “lately” on the Algerian side, the French head of state answers unequivocally negatively. “The worst would be to conclude: “We apologize and everyone goes their own way.” There, the false answer is as violent as the denial. Because, in this case, it is not true recognition. This is the balance of any account. The work of memory and history is not a balance of all accounts.
Macron goes on to say: “It is, on the contrary, to maintain that there is something unqualifiable, something misunderstood, something perhaps undecidable, something unforgivable.” Welcoming also “the real desire on the part of Abdelmajid Tebboune, to begin a new stage” in relations between Algeria and France, also hoping to welcome him to French territory in 2023.
What did Macron say about the relationship between Algeria and Morocco?
In addition, the French president was questioned about the possibility of a ceremony of meditation by the Algerian president on the graves of members of the retinue of Abdelkader, heroes of the resistance to French colonization, detained in Amboise with several members of his family from 1848 to 1852, then buried in the same place, he felt that it would be “a very beautiful and very strong moment” and that he “wished for it”. “I believe this will make sense in the history of the Algerian people. For the French people, it will be an opportunity to understand realities that are often hidden,” he said again.
Finally, this interview addressed the issue of the conflict between Algeria and Morocco, because let us remember, Algiers broke diplomatic relations with Morocco in August 2021, accusing Rabat of “hostile acts”. Emmanuel Macron calls for the “appeasement” of tensions between the two countries. He says he does not believe in a war between these neighbors, while noting “the speculation among some, the fantasy among others and even the will to war among “some”.
