French MPs Seek Recognition of May 8 and October 17 Massacres as State Crimes

The French National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, has registered a draft resolution seeking to hold the French state responsible for “state crimes” committed during the May 8, 1945 massacres and the October 17, 1961 massacre.

The proposals were registered on September 17, according to the list of draft resolutions submitted during the current parliamentary session.

According to the National Assembly’s website, the initiative comprises Resolution No. 1899 concerning the October 17, 1961 massacre, and Draft Resolution No. 1776 concerning the massacres of May 8, 1945, in Sétif, Guelma and Kherrata (eastern Algeria).

The first draft, submitted to the presidency of the National Assembly, calls for recognition of the massacre of Algerians on October 17, 1961, as a “state crime.” It has been signed by a number of deputies in the lower house, including Mathilde Panot, president of the parliamentary group of the left-wing La France Insoumise party.

The sponsors of the resolution state that “what happened on October 17, 1961, represents one of the darkest chapters in the contemporary history of the French Republic.” That evening, tens of thousands of Algerians living in France responded to a call by the National Liberation Front (FLN) to protest a discriminatory curfew imposed by the Paris police on October 5. The measure specifically targeted people then officially referred to as “French Muslim Algerians,” requiring them to remain at home from 8:30 p.m. until 5:30 a.m.
According to the text reviewed by Echorouk, the measure was introduced in a climate of discrimination, repression and institutional racism, further intensifying violence against Algerians.

On October 17, the proposal states, between 20,000 and 40,000 protesters gathered in Paris and its suburbs, including women and kids. The text describes the protesters as unarmed.

The sponsors contend that Paris police forces, deployed in unusually large numbers under the command of Paris Police, the criminal Prefect Maurice Papon, responded with extreme violence. Hundreds of people were beaten, tortured and killed, while some were thrown into the Seine. Around 12,000 people were also arrested within a few hours and detained in what the proposal describes as inhumane conditions, particularly at the Palais des Sports and the Pierre de Coubertin Stadium.

The exact number of victims remains disputed, the sponsors note. The official account at the time reported three deaths, while historical research has placed the actual number of victims at between 100 and 300. The proposal also notes that the figure of 300 attributed to historian Jean-Luc Einaudi has itself been the subject of debate.

According to the resolution’s sponsors, the events were not an isolated or accidental incident, but took place within what they characterize as a system of repression organized by the French state and carried out by the police under Maurice Papon’s responsibility. They argue that the organization of arrests, the provision of stadiums and buses, and the exceptional mobilization of security forces indicate, in their interpretation, the existence of a systematic plan of repression.

This is the basis for their characterization of the events as a “state crime,” which, they argue, remained covered up and denied for many years.

The proposal also reviews subsequent French acknowledgments. In 2012, French President François Hollande acknowledged that a “bloody repression” had taken place on October 17. In 2021, President Emmanuel Macron referred to “inexcusable crimes” committed that night. However, the sponsors note that neither statement amounted to full recognition of the responsibility of the French state.

The draft therefore calls on the French government to publicly acknowledge the full responsibility of the French state for the October 17, 1961 massacre as a “state crime,” rather than limiting responsibility to Police Prefect Maurice Papon. It also calls for October 17 to be added to the French republican calendar as an official national day of commemoration, in tribute to the victims and in recognition of the tragedy.

May 8, 1945: Sétif, Guelma and Kherrata
The second proposal, Resolution No. 1776, concerns the massacres of May 8, 1945. Titled “Draft Resolution to Recognize the Massacres Committed on May 8, 1945, in Sétif, Guelma and Kherrata, Algeria, as State Crimes,” it was signed by MPs: Danielle Simonnet, Elsa Faucillon, Fatiha Keloua Hachi, Sabrina Sebaihi, Laurent Lhardit, Pouria Amirshahi, Christine Arrighi, Clémentine Autain, Léa Balage El Mariky, Fabrice Barusseau, M. Nicolas Bonnet, Mickaël Bouloux, Soumya Bourouaha, Cyrielle Chatelain, Alexis Corbière, Pierrick Courbon, Hendrik Davi, Arthur Delaporte, Dieynaba Diop, Peio Dufau, Emmanuel Duplessy, Inaki Echaniz, Romain Eskenazi, Denis Fégné, Marie-Charlotte Garin, Emmanuel Grégoire, Jérôme Guedj, Catherine Hervieu, Céline Hervieu, Chantal Jourdan, Tristan Lahais, Benjamin Lucas-Lundy, Estelle Mercier, Julie Ozenne, Marc Pena, Stéphane Peu, Sébastien Peytavie, Marie Pochon, Jean-Claude Raux, Sandra Regol, Mereana Reid Arbelot, Claudia Rouaux, Jean-Louis Roumégas, Sandrine Rousseau, François Ruffin, Eva Sas, Sophie Taillé-Polian, Boris Tavernier, Céline Thiébault-Martinez, et Dominique Voynet.

The proposal begins by noting that May 8, 1945, is commemorated in France and Europe as Victory in Europe Day and the defeat of Nazi Germany, but that in Algeria the date marked the beginning of a bloody episode of colonial repression in the Constantine region, particularly in Sétif, Guelma and Kherrata.

The resolution sets out various estimates of the number of victims, acknowledging that historians disagree over the death toll. An initial French estimate put the number of victims at 1,165. Another estimate, attributed to a representative of the U.S. Consulate in Algiers, placed the figure between 30,000 and 35,000. The Algerian nationalist movement, meanwhile, cited figures as high as 90,000, before the figure of 45,000 subsequently became the official Algerian estimate.

The text emphasizes that an exact death toll cannot be established because of the lack of available data, the continued classification or concealment of certain records, and the burning of some victims’ bodies. It also states that French aircraft dropped 41 tonnes of bombs.

After presenting the different estimates and historical accounts, the sponsors call for the massacres to be formally recognized and condemned as “state crimes.”

They also call for the commemoration of the May 8, 1945 massacres to be incorporated into the official protocol for ceremonies marking the Allied victory over Nazi Germany, alongside the full opening of archives relating to the crimes, including documents that remain difficult for historians, researchers and the descendants of victims to access.

Finally, the proposal calls for greater emphasis on the teaching of the history of these massacres in French schools, as well as expanded teaching of the history of colonialism, particularly the colonization of Algeria.