French deputies will examine late Wednesday evening or Thursday a text asking the government to establish a day of commemoration of the massacre of October 17, 1961, during which between thirty and more than 200 Algerian demonstrators died in Paris, according to historians.
If an environmentalist MP, Sabrina Sebaihi, is at the origin of the text, her writing has been the subject of frequent exchanges with the French presidency, in a context where questions of memory still weigh heavily in relations between France and Algeria.
The proposal also put forward by a member of the presidential majority calls for “recognition and condemnation of the massacre (…) committed under the authority of the prefect of police at the time, Maurice Papon”, underlines the explanatory memorandum. She requests “the inclusion of a day of commemoration of the massacre of October 17, 1961, in the agenda of official days and national ceremonies”.
63 years ago, some 30,000 Algerians who came to demonstrate peacefully in Paris suffered violent repression by the police. The official toll of three deaths and around sixty injured is far below the estimates of historians, who record “at least several dozen” deaths.
The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, initiated this recognition in October 2021 by declaring that “the crimes committed on October 17, 1961, under the authority of (the Paris police prefect at the time) Maurice Papon, are inexcusable for the Republic “. Paris announced in December of the same year expanded access to archives on the Algerian War (1954-1962).
In 2012, socialist President François Hollande paid “tribute to the victims” of a “bloody repression” which fell on these men demonstrating “the right to independence”.
The adoption of the text could therefore encourage the French government to organize a commemoration. And this while the Algerian President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, will make a state visit to France “at the end of September-beginning of October”, as announced by the French presidency two weeks ago, following an interview telephone between Mr. Tebboune and Mr. Macron.
The two men welcomed, “questions of memory (…) the recent progress of the Joint Franco-Algerian Commission of historians chaired by professors Mohamed Lahcen Zeghidi and Benjamin Stora, which will meet again in April”.
“Chiseled word by word”
The writing of the text was the subject of “rewriting work down to the comma” with the presidency to arrive at a version that suited the executive, says environmentalist MP Sabrina Sebaihi. “We landed on a text where there is no notion of state crime,” she specifies.
The fact of including a day of commemoration in the agenda of official days and ceremonies also gave rise to “a battle of several months and finally, we reached an agreement”, she says. A former MP who participated in the work, Philippe Guillemard, confirms that the discussions were “numerous” and that the proposed resolution was “chiseled word by word”.
The text should receive the support of the left, the presidential Renaissance party, and the centrists of MoDem. The right-wing Les Républicains party “will not vote for”, according to the group’s president, Olivier Marleix, who does not see the need to “create an additional day of remembrance”.
