A Meeting in France Compares the Practices of Retailleau and Bugeaud Towards Algeria

Although the political debate on memory is dominated by those who hold nostalgia for France’s colonial past in Algeria, there is a resistance that refuses to submit to the hate-filled rhetoric that glorifies colonial practices, which were strongly revived under the Interior Minister in the ousted government, Bruno Retailleau.

The meeting under the title: “France and Algeria from Bugeaud to Retailleau: Interactive video chat with Alain Ruscio and Fabrice Riceputi on October 3 at 8 p.m,” is organised by the two French historians known for their specialisation in the history of French colonialism to discuss the problematic of colonial doctrine of Bugeaud and Retailleau.

This interesting meeting is organised by the Association for Colonial and Post-Colonial History, a well-known organisation opposed to French colonial practices in Algeria and other colonised countries, particularly those in Africa.

The starting point will be statements made earlier by anti-colonial journalist and historian Jean-Michel Aphatie regarding the actions of French colonialism in Algeria and the similarities between them and the Nazi German massacres during World War II in the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane.

The website of the Association for Colonial and Postcolonial History, explaining the rationale for this interactive meeting, states: “Last March, referring to the “Oradour” in Algeria, the journalist Jean-Michel Aphatie brought to light a phenomenon well known to colonial and postcolonial historians: the persistence, despite their numerous works, of a solid national denial of what the colonial history of Algeria really was and, more broadly, that of colonization in general. Moreover, the controversy has seen the resurgence among some of the attempts to rehabilitate colonialism, in times when, from Trump to Putin to Netanyahu, a worrying revival of colonialism and imperialism is taking place in the world.

This interactive meeting revolves around two French figures. One was raised during the heyday of colonial France and even brutally practised colonialism in Algeria. This figure is Marshal Thomas-Robert Bugeaud, who served as Governor-General of Algeria during the colonial period and played a crucial role in the colonisation and suppression of Algerian resistance movements. He is presented as a symbol of French colonialism and a perpetrator of horrific massacres in Algeria.

The second figure is Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who has emerged in French politics over the past year. He is a politician obsessed with hostility toward Algeria and Algerians. Thanks to this obsession, he has been able to assume the leadership of the right-wing “Republicans” party, supported by circles that still yearn for France’s colonial past in Algeria. They consider the latter’s independence the loss of an old dream of this movement, whose slogan was “France from Dunkerque (in the far north of France) to Tamanrasset (in the far south of Algeria).”

The French Europe 1 radio invited, on February 25, 2025, Jean-Michel Aphatie to discuss the current diplomatic crisis between France and Algeria and its historical roots. He said that relations are tense “because we massacred them (the Algerians), because we have never acknowledged it.” He noted that relations might be different “if France apologised for 130 years of massacres, murder, impoverishment of a people, and unbelievable violence. 130 years of occupation!”

However, the straw that broke the camel’s back for the supporters of “French Algeria” was his assertion that what Algerians experienced at the hands of the French occupation army far exceeded what happened in Oradour-sur-Glane, a French village whose inhabitants were massacred by Nazi Germany during World War II. This led to the punishment of historian Jean-Michel Aphatie, who subsequently resigned from the radio station under pressure from the extremist lobby.