The 60th anniversary of the Évian agreements was commemorated this Saturday, March 19 in France. A reception was organized at midday at the presidential palace in Paris. Two hundred people had been invited by the French head of state, to mark the date of March 19, 1962 and the entry into force of a ceasefire after more than seven years of war in Algeria. Without making any new announcements, Emmanuel Macron once again pleaded for a reconciliation of memories.
March 19 was neither the beginning nor the end of the war, but it was a milestone, explains the French president. Emmanuel Macron recalls the memorial gestures of his five-year term: recognition of the responsibility of the French army in the deaths of Maurice Audin and Ali Boumendjel, report by historian Benjamin Stora and gestures, too, towards Algeria, such as for example the restitution of skulls of Algerian resistance fighters from the 19th century.
” Many will say : “You are doing all this, but you are not serious because Algeria is not moving”says the French president. But I’m going to be very direct with you, I think the day will come when Algeria will take this path. I think it is more difficult for the Algerian people and the Algerian leaders than for us, but it will come. So, I assume this outstretched hand and I think it will be followed by gestures, acts, gradually. »
“Deep fractures”
A speech in the absence of any Algerian official, even if the Algerian ambassador to France had been invited. Witnesses to the war in Algeria were there: conscripts, separatist fighters, harkis and returnees. Four of them spoke, including Rosemarie Antoine, who came to bring the memory of the returnees. ” The younger generations must know that this war, and all that preceded it, generated deep fractures on both sides of the Mediterranean. It is time that we turn all these wounded memories into a strength to build a future together. »
Young people were also present in the room. A hundred high school and college students, as well as their teachers, had been invited.
► To read also: Algerian War: the tumultuous history of the Évian Accords