Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune decided on Thursday to establish a "day of memory" in memory of the May 8, 1945 massacres perpetrated by French law enforcement officers in Constantine, described as "crimes against humanity".
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In a message published on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the massacres in Sétif (east of the country), Mr. Tebboune announced his intention "to establish May 8 of each year, National Day of Memory". He also announced the launch of a television channel "specialized in History, which will constitute a support for the educational system in the teaching of this subject which we want to keep alive for all generations".
In his message, published by the official APS agency, President Tebboune describes the 1945 massacres as "crimes committed against humanity and against civilization values, because they are based on ethnic cleansing with the aim of replacing indigenous populations with contributions from foreign populations ”.
He further criticizes "the maneuvers of the racist currents and lobbies on the other side of the Mediterranean, and whose mentality of yesteryear has been irrevocably buried by the will of the (Algerian) people".
On May 8, 1945, while France was celebrating the victory of democracies over Nazism, independence demonstrations took place in Sétif, Guelma and Kherrata, three cities in eastern Algeria where nationalists paraded, Algerian flags in hand.
They were brutally repressed by the colonial forces, causing thousands of deaths. Algerians speak of 45,000 victims. The French from 1,500 to 20,000 dead, including 103 Europeans.
In February 2017, while he was a presidential candidate, Emmanuel Macron, on a visit to Algiers, had described in an interview to a local media the colonization of Algeria as "a crime against humanity", "real barbarism Which had earned him sharp criticism from right-wing politicians.