In recent years, Emmanuel Macron has made the date of October 17, 1961 a stopover to mark the new direction he has given to French policy regarding the question of memory and to reaffirm his rapprochement with Algeria.
This year, the French president completely skipped the event. A sign of tension between the two capitals or a simple effect of the situation in the Middle East?
Algeria, and France under Macron for several years, commemorate the events of October 17, 1961 which saw dozens of Algerian émigrés favorable to independence killed in Paris by the French police. Some drowned in the Seine.
Emmanuel Macron is the first French president to travel to one of the sites of the massacre to pay tribute to the victims and recognize the responsibility of the French state in what happened.
On October 17, 2021, while relations between the two countries were strained due to statements made in September by the French president, he went to the Bezons bridge , in the Paris suburbs, where Algerian demonstrators came from. were thrown into the Seine by the agents of the prefect of police Maurice Papon.
Emmanuel Macron was content to reflect on the spot, without speaking. But he spoke out on Twitter and released a statement with unequivocal content. “ The crimes committed that night under the authority of Maurice Papon are inexcusable for the Republic ,” wrote Emmanuel Macron.
“ France looks at its entire history with lucidity and recognizes the responsibilities clearly established in the tragedy of October 17, 1961 ,” he further indicated.
In 2022, he did not miss the event either, recalling that, “ in Paris, 61 years ago, the repression of a demonstration by Algerian independence activists left hundreds injured and hundreds dead ”.
President Macron reiterated that these were “ inexcusable crimes for the Republic ”. “ France does not forget the victims. The truth is the only path to a shared future ,” he added.
October 17: questions about Macron’s silence
This year, the French president deviated from the rule he established and did not say a word about these tragic events.
In France, the Algerian diaspora is wondering about the reasons for this silence which could be linked to the situation in Palestine where the population of the city of Gaza is undergoing atrocious bombings by the Israeli army in retaliation for the attack carried out by the Palestinian Hamas fighters on October 7.
France openly supports Israel in this conflict. Internally, several controversies have erupted since the start of the clashes, targeting those who also want to denounce Israeli crimes and colonization.
Macron’s silence on the events of October 17 occurs in a tense context where part of the French political class is demanding the abrogation of the 1968 agreement which governs Algerian immigration to France and a rebalancing of French foreign policy in the Maghreb in favor of Morocco and to the detriment of Algeria. This same political class criticizes Macron for having given too much to Algeria without receiving anything.
In addition, Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s visit to Paris, announced for May and then June, has still not taken place. No date has been set for this trip.
Last August, the Algerian president indicated that his visit to France was being maintained and that the Algerian side was awaiting its scheduling by the French authorities.
In recent weeks, the two capitals seem to have regained language. The new French ambassador to Algeria, Stéphane Romatet, was received twice by the Algerian president in less than a month, each time carrying a message from Emmanuel Macron to Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
The first audience took place at the end of last September on the occasion of the presentation of the letters of credence of the French ambassador. He notably declared that he was carrying a “ positive agenda ”.
Mr. Romatet was received a second time by the Head of State, Wednesday October 18, to whom he gave a letter from President Macron . The Presidency of the Republic has not revealed anything about the content of the meeting and Macron’s letter.
