Emmanuel Macron met this Thursday with the Algerian head of state Abdelmadjid Tebboune. A third exchange in less than six weeks between the two heads of state, sign of a certain rapprochement between Algeria and France, the former colonial power.
This interview focused on the memory issue, according to a press release from the presidency. It occurs a few days after the handover by France of the remains of 24 Algerian combatants killed at the start of French colonization in the 19th century.
The restitution of bones - skulls - by France is a strong sign of thawing in relations between Algiers and Paris, marked since independence in 1962 by polemics and tensions. In an interview with the France 24 television channel, Tebboune said on Saturday he expected France to apologize for the colonization of Algeria in order to "calm the climate and make it more serene". The Algerian president had also praised his French counterpart, "someone very honest" likely to contribute to this climate of appeasement.
Restitution of 24 skulls
The question of memory remains at the heart of the conflictual relations between France and Algeria, where the perception is that Paris is not doing enough to repent of its colonial past. In December 2017 in Algiers, Mr. Macron undertook to restore the skulls of Algerians stored since the 19th century in the collections of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris.
The same year, but before his election, he also described, in the Algerian capital, the colonization of Algeria as a "crime against humanity", drawing criticism from French right-wing officials. Algerian political leaders also criticized Marine Le Pen on Thursday, without naming her, and the "colonialist lobby", after the leader of the National Rally (RN, far right) rejected Algiers' requests for an apology for the past colonial.
The situation in Libya also mentioned
In their telephone interview, MM. Tebboune and Macron also exchanged "on the prevailing situation in the region, especially in Libya and the Sahel," added the press release.
Both Paris and Algiers are worried about the situation in Libya, with the increasing involvement of Turkey and Russia. Algeria, which shares nearly 1,000 km of borders with Libya, has been active for several months in an attempt to work for a political settlement of the conflict in this country which threatens regional stability.
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President Tebboune has offered to host an interlibyan "dialogue" in Algiers. In the Sahel, Algeria, which fears the risks of instability on its southern flank, served as mediator in 2014-2015 between the government of Bamako and armed rebel groups in northern Mali.
