The French president apologized on behalf of France to the
Harkis
, Algerian Muslims who fought alongside the French Army in the Algerian war
.
He also announced a law of reparation for those affected.
This measure is framed in a particular context, France is on the verge of a presidential election, and in an international scenario in which other leaders such as Joe Biden have apologized for the actions of the border police with migrants from Haiti.
Macron said that,
for years, generations of French people assumed the "decree of silence and forgetfulness" on this issue in order "to continue living together
.
"
An injustice very similar to that experienced in Spain and in the Vietnam War.
Marc Bassets,
El País
correspondent
in Paris, stressed that
“Algeria was more than a colony, it was France.
It was said that the Senna passes through the middle of Paris and the Mediterranean through the middle of France ”
.
And he explained that "the
Harkis
were Algerian Muslims who fought with the French army during the Algerian war, between 1954 and 1962."
There are around 200,000 people who were left abandoned and in nobody's territory. France ignored them and their own country, Algeria, considered them traitors as collaborators. In addition, Bassets has pointed out that "
those who arrived in France had a very sad fate, France did not help them and admitted them to detention centers
."
The war in Algeria was one of the events without which modern France cannot be understood.
Marc Bassets has highlighted three elements that originated in this war conflict.
The first of them, the
constitution of the Fifth Republic
with Charles De Gaulle, by which "almost monarchical" powers were given to the president and which is currently in force.
The second, the emergence of the National Front, "which comes largely from the war in Algeria."
And finally, "
marginalization problems have a thread with Algeria
."