Cautious and stamped with the seal of consensus, the text is hardly revolutionary. His interest lies elsewhere. It is important to the debate that it will raise in the Hemicycle and to what it will reveal about the current state of opinion on the memory of the Algerian war. The examination, which must begin in the National Assembly on Wednesday March 27 or Thursday March 28, of a proposed resolution aimed at ” the gratitude “ And ” sentence “ of “massacre” of Algerians on October 17, 1961 in Paris promises to awaken some ghosts around the “events in Algeria”as we modestly said then.
That day, the police repression of a pro-FLN demonstration defying the curfew imposed on “French Muslims of Algeria” had left several dozen dead in the heart of the capital and its outskirts. Many victims had drowned in the Seine.
This text, the initiative of which comes from MP Sabrina Sebaihi (Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, Hauts-de-Seine), is part of the process of memorial reconciliation driven by Emmanuel Macron in 2021 following the publication of the report by the historian Benjamin Stora. It opens a new stage in this process of confronting the dark pages of the past by moving to Parliament a debate hitherto confined to the corridors of power, editorial arenas or a few activist circles.
The national representation had in fact little discussed it apart from the adoption, in November 2021, of the bill on “reparation of damages” suffered by the harkis. Benjamin Stora had also long betrayed his “bitterness” to see that political leaders in general, and the left in particular, had not sufficiently taken up his recommendations to push the fires of memorial reconciliation with Algeria and French people of Algerian origin. “I see that the report has infused”he rejoices today.
Refusal to speak of “state crime”
The expected adoption of the resolution – the Renaissance and MoDem groups should join forces with the left – will certainly not upset the official doctrine on the bloody episode of October 17, 1961. Firstly, because it does not acts as a resolution, or a simple opinion devoid of legislative force. Then, because Mr. Macron has already set the framework during a ceremony in tribute to the victims held on October 16, 2021 at the Bezons bridge (Hauts-de-Seine). “The crimes committed that night [le 17 octobre 1961] under the authority of Maurice Papon are inexcusable for the Republic”, the head of state then declared.
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