Independence of Algeria: Macron makes a double gesture towards the Algerians and the Pieds-noirs

President Emmanuel Macron called for the

between France and Algeria in a letter to his counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Algeria's independence.

A wreath will also be laid in his name on Tuesday at the National Memorial of the War in Algeria and the Combat of Morocco and Tunisia, quai Branly, in Paris in tribute to the victims of the massacre of Europeans in Oran, the same day of the independence, July 5, 1962, announced Monday evening the Elysée.

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"The 60th anniversary of Algeria's independence, on July 5, 2022, is an opportunity for the President of the Republic to send a letter to President Tebboune his wishes to the Algerian people and to express his wishes that the strengthening of the already strong ties between France and Algeria continues”,

indicated the French presidency.

continues the Elysée.

On July 5, 1962, Algeria declared its independence, after 132 years of French colonization and a bloody war of liberation lasting almost eight years.

Sixty years later, the wounds are still alive on both sides despite symbolic gestures over the years of France.

In September 2018, a year after his election, Emmanuel Macron acknowledged that the young communist mathematician Maurice Audin died under torture by the French army in 1957 and asked

his widow for

After the publication of the report by French historian Benjamin Stora, in January 2021, he commits to

to try to reconcile the two countries, but excludes

and

, which is coldly welcomed in Algiers.

In the same concern for reconciliation of memories, he expressed on January 26, 2022

of France towards the returnees from Algeria and urges them to "recognize" and

the

in Oran, which affected

"He then denounced the deadly spiral of civil war and reaffirmed his attachment to memory not obscuring any part of history and to its transmission",

recalled the Elysée.

The bilateral relationship soured in October 2021 when Emmanuel Macron affirmed that Algeria had been built after its independence on

arousing the ire of Algiers. .

But relations have gradually warmed in recent months and the French president and his Algerian counterpart expressed their desire to

them in a telephone interview on June 18.