Passing through Bezons (Val-d’Oise) on Saturday October 16, Emmanuel Macron considered that the crimes committed during the massacre of Algerians, the October 17, 1961, “are inexcusable for the Republic”.
This is a first in the history of the Fifth Republic. Saturday October 16, Emmanuel Macron went to the Bezons bridge (Val-d’Oise), one of the places of exaction of the massacre of October 17, 1961. Algerian demonstrators were thrown into the Seine that day, under this bridge. “The crimes committed that night under the authority of Maurice Papon are inexcusable for the Republic”, declared the head of state.
Present on site, Lyes Salem, Franco-Algerian actor and director, felt that “It is a fairly clear recognition. It was necessary, we expected it a lot”. On the side of the descendants of the victims, it is estimated that there are unpunished culprits. “It was the French police in uniform and we are not able to tell 60 years later this truth?”, denounces Mehdi Lallaoui, of the association “Au Nom de la Mémoire”. A tribute which comes at a time when diplomatic tensions exist between France and Algeria and which represents, in this context, a first step towards memorial appeasement.