In Algeria, Jean-Marie Le Pen’s positions on the rejection of migrants, on Islam and on France’s colonial past in Algeria make him a hated politician. During the Algerian War, he served as a paratrooper in Algiers.
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In Algeria, the name of Jean-Marie Le Pen is linked to his presence in Algiers as a paratrooper during the Algerian War.
Jean-Marie Le Pen was a nationalist and brawling student leader when he abandoned the Parisian lecture halls for a paratrooper uniform at the end of 1953. Headed for Indochina. “ At one point, I had the feeling that my country, France, Europe, were at war against communism during the Cold War, I put my actions in line with my thoughts », he declared in 1974. He arrived after the defeat of Dien Bien Phua crippling battle for France and since mythologized by the far right. He worked there mainly as a journalist for the organ of the expeditionary force in 1954-55.
This idea of an imperial France led him to rejoin the army in July 1956 when he was a young deputy. He leaves for Algeria. “ I felt that it was my duty to go there with the contingent since, deep down, I agreed to preserve this part of France “.
He defends the practice of torture, claims to have practiced it himself before reversing his comments and prosecuting those who exhume them once he becomes a prominent leader. “ If it is necessary to torture one man to save a hundred, torture is inevitable, and therefore, in the abnormal conditions in which we are asked to act, it is just » he said, in 1957, according to the newspaper The World.
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Mohamed and Dahmane, two veterans, testified against him in a documentary broadcast in 2017, recalls Faisal Metaouiour correspondent in Algiers. “ They removed the mattress, tied me and my father to the box spring… and then they started the electricity. And it was Jean-Marie Le Pen who flipped the switch. It was Jean-Marie Le Pen! He was the leader of the torturers at Fort l’Empereur! »
Farida, pharmacist, also evokes the past of Jean-Marie Le Pen. “ Jean-Marie Le Pen was a person reviled and hated by Algerians because of his dark past. During the French occupation, he practiced torture against Algerians in a horrific manner. He tried not to admit to his crimes, but testimonies and evidence exist that confirm his actions. »
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In the colonial experience, Jean-Marie Le Pen will have consolidated his aversion for the French rulers, whom he accuses of treason and dishonor. He will also have fueled his anti-immigrant ideology, the matrix of the National Front which he founded with former collaborators of the German Nazis and many nostalgic for French Algeria.
Kamel, a teacher, recalls the political positions of the founder of the National Front. “ These odious practices during the war of national liberation are mentioned by today’s generations and it does not stop there. Since Le Pen has greatly contributed to building an opinion hostile to migrants in France and to spreading hatred against foreigners in this country. »
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