The National Assembly voted on Thursday March 28 for a text asking the government to establish a day of commemoration of the massacre of October 17, 1961 in Paris, during which between thirty and more than 200 Algerian demonstrators died, according to historians. . Sixty-seven deputies voted for and eleven against, from the ranks of the National Rally.
The ecologist MP for Hauts-de-Seine Sabrina Sebaihi is at the origin of the text, but her writing was the subject of frequent exchanges with the Elysée, in a context where questions of memory still weigh heavily in relations between the France and Algeria.
The proposed resolution carried by Mr.me Sebaihi and his colleague Julie Delpech (Renaissance) demand the “recognition and condemnation of the massacre (…) committed under the authority of the police prefect at the time, Maurice Papon”, underlines the explanatory memorandum. He asks “the inclusion of a day of commemoration of the massacre of October 17, 1961 on the agenda of official days and national ceremonies”.
Progressive recognition of a “bloody repression”
Sixty-three years ago, some 30,000 Algerians who came to demonstrate peacefully in Paris suffered violent repression from the police. The official toll of three deaths and around sixty injured is far below the estimates of historians, who list “at least several dozen” of deaths.
Emmanuel Macron began this recognition in October 2021, declaring that “the crimes committed on October 17, 1961 under the authority of Maurice Papon are inexcusable for the Republic”. Paris announced in December of the same year expanded access to archives on the Algerian War (1954-1962).
In 2012, the president, François Hollande, had already made “tribute to the victims” of a “bloody repression” which had fallen on these men demonstrating for “the right to independence”.
The adoption of the text could encourage the Elysée to organize a commemoration, insists Mme Sebaihi, while Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is due to make a state visit to France “late September-early October”, as announced by the Elysée two weeks ago. During a telephone interview, Mr. Macron and his Algerian counterpart welcomed, “regarding questions of memory, (…) recent advances by the Joint Franco-Algerian Commission of Historians chaired by Professors Mohamed Lahcen Zeghidi and Benjamin Stora, which will meet again in April ».