On October 17, 1961, while they were demonstrating peacefully, many Algerians were the target of bloody repression. The President of the Republic went to one of the scene of the massacre on Saturday, October 16.
A gesture for history: Emmanuel Macron paid tribute, Saturday, October 16, to the Algerians killed during the night of October 17, 1961. He is the first French president to visit one of the scene of the tragedy, the Pont de Bezons (Hauts-de-Seine) from which many demonstrators left. There he observed a minute of silence. He qualified, through a press release from the Elysee, the crimes committed during that bloody night of“inexcusable for the Republic”.
On October 17, 1961, in the midst of the Algerian war, 25,000 demonstrators marched in Paris. They are asking for an end to the curfew imposed on them every evening. Armed with batons and guns, the police charge. Algerians were killed or thrown into the Seine, with the consent of the then prefect of police, Maurice Papon. Several dozen people have lost their lives, according to historians. Today, some October 17 activists would have liked the president to recognize a state crime and see justice done. “You can assassinate people without there being any prosecution, or these people being named. (…) It’s a little unbearable”, comments Mehdi Lallaoui, president of the association Au nom de la mémoire.