This March 19 is commemorated in Algeria as the “victory day”. It corresponds to the day of the ceasefire, the day after the Evian agreements which put an end to more than 7 years of war of independence, 60 years ago. As of Friday, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune addressed the Algerians in a press release. He felt that it was necessary to deal with the “memorial file”, an allusion to the initiatives of France, but that “the crimes of colonization” will not be forgotten for all that.
” The memorial file must be handled in a responsible and fair manner, in a climate of frankness and trust. “. But insists Abdelmadjid Tebboune. : “ the hideous crimes of colonization cannot be time-barred “.
While his counterpart Emmanuel Macron will commemorate the end of the Algerian war by receiving, for the sake of appeasement of memories, representatives of the various protagonists of the conflict: separatist, conscript, harkis, repatriated, who intervene together in schools French, the Algerian president reminds that there are still outstanding issues.
Alger ” always claiminsists Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the archives of the colonial period, information on the disappeared from the war of liberation, and compensation for the victims of French nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara “.
The war in Algeria continues to fuel debate in France as the presidential election approaches. The Republican candidate Valérie Pécresse has pledged to find a date other than March 19, 1962 chosen by François Hollande to commemorate the end of the conflict, many civilian victims having, she explains, fallen after the ceasefire. It is a date also contested by French returnees from Algeria and by National Front candidate Marine Le Pen.