While a diplomatic crisis is currently weakening the links between Algeria and France, Gilles Manceron, historian specializing in the colonial history of France gives some answers.
“We have the impression that it is his choices in the presidential election of 2022 that dictate the recent declarations of the President of the Republic“, begins Gilles Manceron, specialist in French colonial history, about the statements relayed by Le Monde, that President Macron would have made in front of an audience of young descendants of actors of the Algerian war. ‘he was in the race for the Elysee Palace in 2017, Emmanuel Macron had visited this country where he had mentioned a system that was necessary “look in the face“, by evoking this still painful period which he described as”crime against humanity“. A position that seems to have been forgotten in favor of an argument that was legion during colonial times.
The specialist in colonial history expresses his incomprehension in the face of the declarations of the Head of State: “It does not seem to me to be the role of a President of the Republic to pass judgment on societies and on history“, explains Gilles Manceron. A report commissioned from the historian Benjamin Stora nevertheless had the ambition to improve relations between the two countries. It listed twenty-one recommendations, with the aim of more solemnly initiating a process. reconciliation between Algeria and France who share a common history. Gilles Manceron concludes his analysis by explaining that the crisis will only be temporary and that it is probably a “sleeve effect“by President Emmanuel Macron.