A French Counter-Bill To Restore Algeria’s Baba Merzoug’s Cannon

Ms. Sabrina Sebaihi, a Member of Parliament for the “Ecology” party, part of the “New Popular Front”, has decided to submit a bill to the French National Assembly (the lower house of parliament) that would allow for the return of some Algerian properties looted by the occupation army and currently held in French museums. This move comes in response to the framework law approved by the French parliament last week, which excluded Algerian looted items.

Ms. Sebaihi stated in a post on her “X” account that she decided to introduce a bill to legalize Algeria’s recovery of the famous Baba Merzoug cannon, displayed in the French city of Brest, which was illegally seized by the French army during the occupation and smuggled into France.

MP Sebaihi wrote, just one week after the French law deprived Algeria of recovering some of its properties looted by the French occupation army: “We cannot build the future on the spoils of war. I am submitting a bill to return the Baba Merzoug cannon, known as the Consulate, to Algeria, because memory cannot be a one-way street, and because justice is not reduced to an arsenal of weapons. Returning these artifacts means correcting history.”

The MP did not provide additional details in her brief post regarding the new bill, or whether it is limited to the “Baba Merzoug cannon” or extends to all properties looted by the French occupation army throughout the occupation period from 1830 to 1962. “Echorouk” attempted to contact her for more information, but was unsuccessful.

The law approved on Monday, April 13, does not include the handover of any items of high symbolic significance, such as the sword of Emir Abdelkader, the hero of the Algerian resistance, or the Baba Merzoug cannon, also known as “the Consulate”, which were confiscated after the French occupation of Algeria in 1830. This was considered a setback for those French people who wanted to open a new chapter with Algeria and thus normalize the strained relations with it.

The proposed bill remains open for enrichment and discussion according to parliamentary customs, especially if the proposing MP has sufficient support from other MPs to pass this bill into law. Sabrina Sebaihi was elected as part of the “Ecology” party, which belongs to the “New National Front” bloc, comprising influential parties such as “La France Insoumise” led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the Socialist Party led by Olivier Faure, and the French Communist Party.

The “New National Front” bloc holds a parliamentary majority in the lower house of the French parliament with 182 seats, but it does not have the absolute majority required to pass the bill, which necessitates forming alliances with other parties, excluding the right and far-right, as rapprochement with them remains impossible given the political and ideological differences between the two sides.

On the other hand, consensus remains possible with French President Emmanuel Macron’s party, “Ensemble pour la République”, as its ideology is a mix of centrist ideas, which sometimes intersect with the left and at other times with the right.

It is worth recalling that the law approved last week opened the door for the recovery of some, but not all, looted properties, such as Emir Abdelkader’s caftan, his manuscripts, banners, and the key to the city of Laghouat, as reported by the French newspaper “Le Monde”. These items hold some importance, but their impact on calming the memory wars with Algeria remains unlikely given the continued intransigence of the French side in finding a final and radical solution to the memory file, which continues to cast a shadow over bilateral relations.