Macron rejects any “repentance” and calls for looking at the past “with courage”

Emmanuel Macron estimated on Friday August 26 that the search for “the truth” and of “the gratitudewas more important than therepentanceon the questions of colonization and the war in Algeria which poison the relationship between Paris and Algiers.

“I often hear that, on the question of memory and the Franco-Algerian question, we are constantly summoned to choose between pride and repentance. Me, I want the truth, the recognition (because) otherwise we will never move forward“, declared the French president during a press briefing in Algiers on the second day of his visit to Algeria, intended to “building the futurewithout obscuring anything of the colonial past, with an emphasis on young entrepreneurs and start-ups.

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Just before this declaration, the president went to the European cemetery Saint-Eugène, the main one in the capital during the time of the French colonization of Algeria. He laid a wreath in front of a monument to the “died for France“, while the “ringtone to the dead» before the Marseillaise sung by the choir of the French army. Then, in the middle of the pines and cypresses, he strolled for a long time between the different sectors, Christian, military, then lingered particularly in the Jewish square. In front of the marble tomb of Roger Hanin, an actor and director born in Algeria, he meditated with the director Alexandre Arcady and the economist Jacques Attali, both born in Algeria, at his side.

More efficiency in the fight against illegal immigration

On a completely different level, Emmanuel Macron said he wanted “work together» with his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, to be «more efficient” in the fight against illegal immigration and at the same time “more flexible“on immigration”chosen“. “What we have decided is to work together and also with a certain collective trust (…). We are going to be very rigorous in order, together, to fight against illegal immigration and the networks and to be much more effective in preventing and being able to accompany (the illegal immigrants, editor’s note) more effectively“said Emmanuel Macron during a press briefing. “And we would like to have a much more flexible approach to chosen immigration, that is to say the families of dual nationals, but also the artists, sportsmen, entrepreneurs and politicians who nourish the bilateral relationship.“, he added.

“In this context, we would like to be able to improve the deadlines» for obtaining visas and «if we simplify the procedures a little, (it allows) to have a faster readability and to avoid incurring too many costs“, argued the head of state. The issue of visas is one of the subjects “sensitive» and sources of «tensionsbetween the two countries, acknowledged the French president. “This is a file on which we spoke at length yesterday, until the middle of the night, with the president” Algerian, underlined Emmanuel Macron, “and on which we have mandated our ministers and therefore which will move forward in the coming weeks and months“. He felt that this file required “precaution», «requirement” and “common delicacy» to avoid «misunderstandings“. Paris has reduced by 50% the number of visas granted to Algeria – as in Morocco – to put pressure on governments deemed too uncooperative in the readmission of their nationals expelled from France.

France is not the enemy

Emmanuel Macron also called on young Algerians and Africans to “don’t get carried away” by “the immense manipulation” of “networks“remote control”underhand» by foreign powers who present France as «the enemyof their countries. “I simply mean the African youth: explain the problem to me and don’t get carried away because your future is not anti-France“, declared the president of the republic, questioned by the press on”the disenchantment of Francein some African countries. “Yes, France is criticized. She is criticized for the past, (…) because misunderstandings have been left to settle for too long, and also because there is immense manipulation“, he added.

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“Let’s be clear: many of the activists of political Islam have an enemy: France; many of the networks that are pushed covertly, which by Turkey, which by Russia, which by China, have an enemy: France“, he continued, denouncing the”influential, neo-colonial and imperialist agendaof these countries. “There is an enemy, it is France. Everyone agrees, it’s too easy“, according to him. “It may have been the fight of your grandparents, of your parents, but, everywhere in Africa, you are told about cracks, carabistouilles“. “Let’s move on“, he added, acknowledging that it took “time to rebuild trust“. “But I do it with patience, commitment and affection for the African continent and for Algeria“.

Emmanuel Macron had made a similar speech during a visit at the end of July to three African countries, including Cameroon, where he had strongly denounced the “hybrid presenceof Russia in Africa, whichgoes through disinformation and militias“, and that “is a concern first and foremost for the African continent“. In Algiers, he pleaded for “strengthen the partnership with Algeriain the fight against the terrorist threat in the Sahel. These include, in particular,prevent mercenaries from flourishing in the area, especially those of Wagner“, he added, referring to the private Russian group active in Mali, from which the French army recently left.