In the “work of memory” on the Algerian war, the gesture is highly symbolic.
It is part of the process started with the recent submission, on January 20, of the report by historian Benjamin Stora.
As of tomorrow Wednesday, the archives services will be authorized to communicate to researchers documents classified as "National Defense".
This decision by Emmanuel Macron, very involved in this file, comes shortly after the recognition of France's responsibility for the assassination in 1957 of the Algerian independence lawyer Ali Boumendjel.
Concretely, today, to work on "secret" documents of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Archives or the historical service of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, academics must obtain a declassification stamp.
A stamp that must be affixed, sheet by sheet, by the archivists responsible for assessing whether this information can be made public.
Procedure not only very long, but also arbitrary.
From now on, indicates the Elysee, this declassification will be done by cardboard, will therefore be faster, and will cover the entire period of the Algerian war: from 1954 to 1970, date of the departure of the last French soldier in Algeria after independence.
Files as sensitive as those relating to disappearances - even if the Elysee specifies that there is not a large "special disappeared" file, but information disseminated over the documents - will thus be accessible, on a case-by-case basis, to researchers.
Old information still ultra-sensitive
What exactly do the boxes buried in the State cellars contain?
Everything, absolutely everything that "the State is likely to produce in an internal document", one indicates to the Elysee.
This can be the verbatim of an important meeting, the draft of an official decision, statistics requested by the government on all possible subjects, plans… Everything will not be revealed with this reform, however.
Some information, as old as it is, remains ultra-sensitive.
Example: "It would not be relevant to communicate the plans of the French Embassy in Baghdad, so that they are then published or put online!"
".
It will always be a question, insists the Elysee, of finding a balance between the imperatives of the protection of the nation - thus the secrecy-defense - and the democratic imperative for the State to account to the citizens of its action.
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Algerian War: why Emmanuel Macron breaks a taboo
On Algeria, there remains a big downside: information and secrets relating to nuclear power remain non-communicable, being the subject of separate legislation.
However, France carried out several nuclear tests in the 1960s in the Algerian Sahara.
The “memorial work” is progressing, but there are still many burning themes.
