In an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel, the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, described French President Emmanuel Macron’s statements on Algeria as “very dangerous.”
In this conversation, President Tebboune explained, “When a head of state declares that Algeria was not a nation in the fullest sense of the word, things become very dangerous,” stressing that it is not a personal problem (with Macron), but rather a national problem.
Mr. Tebboune also stressed that “the history of a people should not be prejudiced and Algerians should not be offended,” describing Macron’s statements as “an old hatred.”
The head of state continued, saying that “President Macron has completely and in vain revived an old rivalry,” adding that “if the far-right journalist Eric Zemmour makes such statements, no one will pay any attention to him, but when a head of state declares that Algeria was not a nation in the truest sense of the word, then it becomes very dangerous
President Tebboune went on to say that “Macron does not think like that,” considering that his statements have “electoral” motives, adding that “President Macron, through this statement, has sided with those who justify colonialism.”
In response to a question about the issue of memory, the President of the Republic clarified that “Algeria does not need an apology from Macron for the events that occurred in 1830 or 1840, but it demands a full and complete recognition of the crimes committed by the French.”
He also pointed out that “President Macron had done this before, when he publicly stated in 2017 that colonialism was a crime against humanity,” noting that “the Germans destroyed an entire kinship in Oradour-sur-Glane in 1944, and to this day the memory of the massacre is still commemorated.”
The head of state added that “there are dozens of villages that witnessed the same fate as that of Oradour-sur-Glane in Algeria, where the French brought the residents of many villages to caves and set them on fire, which led to their suffocation.”
On a question about the possibility of reopening the airspace for French military aircraft, President Tebboune replied, “No, and if the French want to go to Mali or Niger, they have to fly for 9 hours, instead of 4 hours as they used to, but we remain ready to grant an exception when it comes to aiding the wounded.”
