Emmanuel Macron has told representatives of the Pieds Noirs – the Algerian-born French citizens who fled to France after Algerian independence – that a 1962 shooting by French troops against them was “unforgivable for the republic”, reports The Guardian.
Macron stressed the need for “reconciliation” over the Algeria conflict, as part of his drive to address France’s colonial legacy in north Africa ahead of his bid for re-election this spring.
France should “tell the truth even when it’s painful”, and “bring clarity” even if it had to be “pulled from the shadows”, he said.
Macron, the first French president born after the Algerian war of independence of 1954-62, has sought during his five years in office to make steps towards recognising the brutality of the Algeria conflict, which has been shrouded in secrecy and denials and remains a divisive factor in modern French society.
Macron met representatives from French and European families who lived in Algeria during French rule and returned to France after Algeria was granted independence, who were known as pieds noirs. He recognised as a “massacre” the civilian deaths that happened at rue d’Isly in Algiers on March 1962, one week after the signing of the Evian peace accords and the ceasefire which ended the war.