Translated with AI
The Algerian parliament unanimously passed a law recognizing France's colonization of the country as a crime and demanding an official apology and reparations. The document was approved at a legislative session on Wednesday.
During the vote, members of parliament, wearing scarves in the colors of the national flag, applauded and chanted "Long live Algeria." The law affirms that France bears legal responsibility for its colonial past in Algeria and the tragedies it led to.
Parliament Speaker Brahim Bougali told the state news agency that the law's passage sends a clear message both domestically and internationally that Algeria's national memory cannot be erased or revised.
The law lists the "crimes of French colonialism," including nuclear testing, extrajudicial executions, physical and psychological torture, and the systematic plunder of natural resources. It specifically emphasizes the right of the Algerian state and people to full and fair compensation for material and moral damages.
French rule in Algeria from 1830 to 1962 remains a sore point in relations between the two countries. This period included massacres and deportations, and culminated in a bloody war of independence from 1954 to 1962.
Algeria claims 1.5 million people died during the war, while French historians put the figure lower – around 500,000, of which 400,000 were Algerian. French President Emmanuel Macron previously called the colonization of Algeria a "crime against humanity," but has yet to issue an official apology.
