The war in Algeria never ceases to fuel controversy in France. The town hall of Perpignan (south) is preparing to create an esplanade in homage to Pierre Sergent, fervent defender of French Algeria and founder of the branch of the OAS (organization of the secret army) in metropolitan France.
A gesture denounced by several unions and associations for the defense of human rights and the fight against racism.
Pierre Sergent was a captain in the French army during the Algerian war. Fervent defender of French Algeria, he took part in the generals’ abortive putsch in 1961 and then in the creation of the OAS.
He was the head of the latter on French territory, where it committed some 70 assassinations, including that of the mayor of Evian, a town near the Swiss border where the eponymous agreements that ended the war were signed. The organization is also responsible for the assassination attempt against General De Gaulle in 1962.
After the dismantling of the organization, Pierre Sergent continued his political activism underground. Sentenced to death in absentia, he was pardoned after the promulgation of the amnesty law in 1968. In 1986, he was a member of the National Front. He died in 1992, aged 66.
It is the same party, which has become the National Rally, which is preparing to pay homage to him. The town hall of Perpignan is headed by a well-known figure in this political formation, Louis Alliot.
An initiative denounced by around thirty organizations, mainly on the left, who called for demonstrations this Saturday, October 29 in Perpignan. “It’s as if we were creating a Pétain or Hitler place,” explains Michel Chabasse, head of the CGT union.
Louis Alliot tried to defend his initiative by highlighting the fact that Pierre Sergent was also a French “resistant” during the Second World War. But Pierre Sergent remains above all a chief of the OAS and the homage which is returned to him does not pass.
Torpedo Franco-Algerian reconciliation
“Pierre Sergent, it is this gentleman who created the OAS, responsible for 70 assassinations on the national territory, including that of the mayor of Evian”, recalls SOS Racisme, which judges the initiative “hallucinating”.
Louis Alliot further defends his decision by asserting that it was taken “in agreement with all the associations of repatriates” and a “certain number of associations of veterans”.
These repeated initiatives by the far right aim to counterbalance the policy of President Emmanuel Macron, who has undertaken to “reconcile the memories” of the Algerian war.
Emmanuel Macron has multiplied the gestures, recognizing, in particular, the responsibility of the French State in the death of Algerian resistance fighters, such as Maurice Audin and Ali Boumendjel, or the repression of the demonstrations of October 17, 1961, in Paris, described as an “inexcusable crime”…
The Rassemblement national, despite the will to “demonize” it is given, remains straight in its boots on everything related to France’s past in Algeria. One of his elected representatives in the last legislative elections in June expressed his nostalgia for French Algeria in the inaugural speech of the new legislature which he delivered in his capacity as dean of the assembly.
It is the action of these lobbies which is regularly denounced by the Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune as a hindrance to the good understanding between Algeria and France.
