Recognize and repair the "harkie tragedy", 60 years after the end of the Algerian war: the deputies examine Thursday, November 18 a bill to ask "forgiveness" to these Algerians who fought alongside the French army before to disembark in metropolitan France in
"unworthy conditions"
.
Legislative translation of a speech by Emmanuel Macron delivered on September 20 at the Elysee Palace in front of representatives of this community, the text is intended to be an examination of the conscience of France with a memorial dimension but also a compensation component.
With this law, the Head of State goes further than his predecessors since Jacques Chirac, by recognizing a
“debt”
towards these men but also their families.
To read also Harkis: a law to "repair and appease"
For the first time, the President of the Republic asked for "forgiveness", a rare and never trivial act of repentance when it comes to the Algerian conflict, a subject still so hot on both sides of the Mediterranean, as recent reminders have reminded us. tensions between Paris and Algiers after controversial remarks by Emmanuel Macron on the Algerian nation.
"It is a black page for France"
, summarized the Minister Delegate in charge of Memory and Veterans Geneviève Darrieussecq.
The bill juggles the symbolic and the concrete. It recognizes the
"services rendered in Algeria by the former members of the auxiliary formations which served France and which it abandoned during the process of independence of this country"
. Up to 200,000 harkis had been recruited as auxiliaries to the French army during the conflict between 1954 and 1962. The text also recognizes
"conditions unworthy of the reception"
reserved for the 90,000 harkis and their families who fled Algeria after independence.
“Almost half of them were relegated to camps and hamlets for forestry,”
explained Geneviève Darrieussecq.
Consequently, the bill provides for
"compensation"
for this damage, with the key to a lump sum taking into account the length of stay in these structures.
The measure concerns
"the former Harkis combatants and their wives received after 1962 in
" metropolis "
, in unworthy conditions, but also their children who stayed there, or were even born there"
, explains LREM rapporteur Patricia Mirallès.
Read also France-Algeria crisis: Algiers remains deaf to French appeasement efforts
Fifty million euros have already been entered in the 2022 draft budget to supplement the compensation fund.
"We estimate that 6,000 cases could be completed by 2022"
, specifies Patricia Mirallès who will defend an amendment to
"integrate specific cases which would not today be covered by the lump sum compensation"
.
In 2018, a solidarity fund of 40 million euros over four years was created for the descendants of harkis.
The bill also contains categorical measures for the benefit of the widows of these veterans.
A commission responsible for contributing to the collection and transmission of the memory of harkis and their relatives and to rule on requests for reparation will be set up.
On the left, David Habib joked about the
“cyclical approach of the president-candidate”
Macron, but underlines
“the need to provide a response to our fellow Harkis, adapted to the suffering that has been theirs”
.
The PS will vote for.
Alexis Corbière (LFI) worried about measures with
"variable geometry" able
to revive the wounds between harkis but his group will not oppose a
"text which marks, from a historical point of view, a breakthrough"
.
Read also "We grew up in trauma": for the descendants of Harkis, the weight of memory
On the right and on the far right, where the Harki electorate is traditionally courted, the reception is more mixed, even sour. Marine Le Pen is ironic about
"the electoral generosity of Emmanuel Macron"
.
"Macron is in an offensive strategy to water categories that can contribute to his re-election,"
also squeals a deputy LR.
In July, 33 LR deputies led by Julien Aubert, had asked Emmanuel Macron for the payment of
"special compensation"
in favor of the harkis.
Julien Aubert and the LR group notably tabled a series of amendments recognizing the
“full and entire responsibility”
of France in the abandonment of the harkis in Algeria or the
“social segregation” to
which these combatants and their families were subjected. in France.