President Emmanuel Macron said he would not “ask for forgiveness” from Algeria for French colonization, but hoped to continue working on reconciliation with his counterpart Abdelmajid Tebboune.
“Not until I apologize, not about this, those words will destroy all our relations,” he said in an interview for Le Point magazine published late Wednesday.
“The worst thing is to decide: ‘I apologize and everyone goes alone’,” Macron said.
“Creating memory and history is not the be-all and end-all of the account,” he said.
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But in the interview, he also said that Tebboune “will come to France in 2023”, to recall Macron’s trip to Algiers last year and continue the “unprecedented work of friendship”.
France’s 100-year colonization of Algeria and its brutal 1954-62 war for independence have left deep scars on both sides, each of which Macron has both lashed out at and rekindled in his political career.
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No apologies from Macron
In 2017, then-presidential candidate Macron called the French occupation a “crime against humanity”.
The report commissioned by the historian Benjamin Stora suggested in 2020 further progress towards the reconciliation of the two countries, while not “repenting” and “apologising”.
Macron has also questioned whether Algeria existed as a nation before it was colonized by France, drawing an angry response from Algiers.
Also read: Macron wraps up Algeria visit with ‘new pact’
“This moment of tension teaches us,” Macron told Algerian writer Kamel Daoud in the interview.
“You have to be able to reach out again and participate, which President Tebboune and I can do,” he said.
Relations between Algeria and France
He supported the suggestion for Tebboune to visit the grave of 19th-century Algerian anti-colonial hero Abdelkader and his entourage, who are buried in Amboise in central France.
“It will be useful for the history of the Algerian people. For the French, it will be an opportunity to understand the reality that is often hidden,” Macron said.
Also read: France is committed to Africa’s security, says Macron
Algeria and France maintain a lasting relationship through immigration, involvement in the independence conflict and the post-war repatriation of French settlers, touching more than 10 million people living in France today.
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