A commission of historians from the two countries will analyze the colonial period and the war
Aug. 25 () –
The presidents of France and Algeria, Emmanuel Macron and Abdelmayid Tebune, advocated this Thursday after a meeting to strengthen collaboration and to look towards “new horizons”, which will implicitly review a past that the French president has described as “inherited”.
Macron has started a three-day visit to Algeria with which he wants to build bridges after many disagreements. “We have a common, complex, painful past”, he has recognized in a public appearance without questions with his counterpart.
For Macron, the “essential objective” of the trip is to “build a future” in common, which also means “facing the past head-on, with great humility” and “a desire for truth, memory and history.”
To this end, he has announced the creation of a mixed commission of historians who will examine the archives and shed light on the most conflictive period between France and Algeria, the one that goes from the beginning of colonization to the end of the war. They will work, according to Macron, “without taboos”.
Precisely this year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Evian Agreements that ended more than seven years of war against French forces and the independence of Algeria, on July 5, 1962.
Tebune has also acknowledged that the two countries have a “common history”, but has agreed with the French president that it is time to “go forward” with the aim of “intensifying” relations in the short term.
The Algerian president described the first results of this visit as “encouraging”, alluding to the creation of intergovernmental commissions and the foreseeable “intensification” of high-level cross-visits.
The two leaders have also discussed current international and regional issues, an area in which Tebune has included Libya, Mali, the Sahel and Western Sahara. In the latter case, Algeria is the main ally of the Polisario Front.
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