French President Emmanuel Macron is due to visit Algeria on Dec. 6, APS news agency reported on Tuesday, quoting a source at the Algerian Foreign Ministry.
The source noted that the visit was decided “following consultations between Algerian and French competent institutions.”
Macron was set to visit Algeria in September, but his visit was postponed to anther date.
Macron, 39, had visited Algiers on Feb. 13 as part of his election campaign to presidency. He stated to media that French colonization was a “crime against humanity.” Although this statement was welcomed in Algeria, it provoked indignation among political class in France.
In fact, Algiers and Paris have failed so far to normalize their long-standing bilateral relations, as the two nations are still unable to overcome their common “painful” past, which includes 132 years of French colonial era in the North African nation.
In Algeria, it is understood that the bilateral relations with France could reach normalization, only when Paris recognizes the crimes committed during its colonial era, and offers apology to the victims of that “brutal” colonialism rule.
However, Paris is still considering colonialism a bright era which “brought civilization” to other people, while recognizing that “some atrocities were committed,” but without apologizing.
The French young president’s visit to Algeria could mark a new era in the bilateral relations between Paris and Algiers, in case he recognizes and then apologizes for the crimes committed by the colonial regime in Algeria.
