Emmanuel Macron promised to put words into an indisputable truth. To describe with the greatest precision what happened on October 17, 1961 in Paris. The President of the Republic has partly kept his word. "The repression was brutal, violent, bloody," wrote the Elysee in its press release. Nearly 12,000 Algerians were arrested and transferred to sorting centers at the Coubertin Stadium, the Sports Palace and other places. In addition to many wounded, several dozen were killed, their bodies thrown into the Seine. Many families never found the remains of their loved ones, who disappeared that night. "
The story is correct but it leaves many associative actors and other political leaders a little taste of the unfinished.
If Emmanuel Macron described more precisely what happened that day, more than any other president probably on this subject, he would not have said everything.
Since Saturday, voices have been raised to regret the insufficiency of the presidential words.
Present in Colombes on Saturday afternoon, Mehdi Lallaoui, the president of the association "In the name of memory", was one of the most resigned.
“We are very disappointed because it is very, very short of what we are asking for.
It's a missed opportunity, ”he lamented to the Parisian.
"A very heavy denial to remove"
Because the President of the Republic has made choices, which some equate to renouncements. Emmanuel Macron designates only one person responsible in this bloody repression, which claimed the lives of at least 120 people according to historians' estimates: the former Paris police prefect Maurice Papon. A choice that makes Gilles Manceron jump. “We are talking about crime, but the police chief is the only one appointed. We are not talking about state crime, while the responsibilities are to be sought up to the highest summit of the state. The order was given to suppress the demonstrators. "
The historian evokes here the potential responsibilities of two men. Those of Roger Frey, then Minister of the Interior and Michel Debré, Prime Minister at the time. For years, the official death toll did not exceed three deaths. “It's a very heavy denial to remove, continues Gilles Manceron. For thirty years, the authorities have delivered a false truth. There are responsibilities in the actions, but also in the concealment of the facts. "
Rabah Sahili's testimony to AFP, whose voice breaks at the memory of the evening of October 17, 1961, is telling. “Police and gendarmes were excruciatingly brutal. They had the rage to hurt, he says. I was with a cousin when the police came upon us. Stronger than me, he tried to protect me but received an avalanche of blows from pistol butts and batons, which broke his leg. "He also tells about his stay, of a fortnight, at the" sorting center "in Vincennes. “This camp was devoid of all amenities: no beds, no toilets. We slept on the floor in the freezing cold ”.
This “denial”, as Gilles Manceron still calls it, will be difficult to overcome.
It was for François Hollande, who spoke in 2012 of “bloody repression” in a five-line press release.
It is also for Emmanuel Macron, despite a real advance in the work of memory.
It will undoubtedly be in the future.
“Gaston Deferre, before the left came to power, called for an account of the events of October 17.
He had accused Maurice Papon of a war crime.
When the left came to power, he was asked if he would recognize the 1961 crackdown. His response was "Don't count, not for 20 or 30 years."
"
"Recognize clearly and unambiguously the colonial massacre and state crime"
Gilles Manceron, like other historians, believes that the truth of the facts can only be recognized by speaking of “state crime”.
Mehdi Lallaoui does not take offense: "We can therefore assassinate people without there being any prosecution, nor that those responsible are named as the Parisian police, Roger Frey, Michel Debré or even the then President of the Republic. : General de Gaulle ".
A state crime is also what 11 mayors of the Paris region and of Allonnes in Sarthe call for.
The signatories of Ile-de-France are elected from Montreuil, Nanterre, Trappes, Fontenay-sous-Bois, Gennevilliers, Île-Saint-Denis, Stains, Grigny, Bobigny, La Courneuve.
They ask the President of the Republic to "recognize clearly and unambiguously the colonial massacre and the state crime".
