Emmanuel Macron, the President of France and ex officio co-prince of Andorra, has said he will not repent nor apologise for France’s colonial past in Algeria.
Macron’s office says he will seek to promote reconciliation through a number of symbolic acts.
There will “no repentance nor apologies” for the occupation of Algeria or the bloody eight-year war that ended French rule, Macron’s office said, adding that the French leader would instead take part in “symbolic acts” aimed at promoting reconciliation.
The comments come before the publication later today of a report he commissioned into how France is facing up to the legacy of that period.
Macron had in the past that France had committed crimes against humanity in Algeria, and spoken of the need for truth and reconciliation.
In July, Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had expressed hopes Macron would apologise for France’s 132 years of colonial rule in Algeria and the brutal eight-year war that ended it, have left a legacy of often prickly relations between the two countries.
“We have already had half-apologies. The next step is needed… we await it,” Tebboune said in an interview at the time.
“I believe that with President Macron, we can go further in the appeasement process … he is a very honest man, who wants to improve the situation.”
France’s colonial rule of Algeria began in 1830 and lasted to 1962, when it gained independence after an eight- year armed struggle.
Thousands of French and hundreds of thousands of Algerians died.