French Parties Pressurize On Macron To Enable Harkis To Visit Algeria

File of Harkis and allowing them and their families to visit Algeria returns to raise controversy among the French official institutions, as the MP Damien Adam, of the Republican Party “En Marche!” renewed his demand and asked, on Sunday, the Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, a question about the situation of Harkis and the freedom of movement between France and Algeria for this category.

The French MP described the Algerian authorities’ refusal to allow these persons and their families to visit Algeria as an “unfair” decision after all these years that have passed since the events of the two countries.

Files that are related to Algeria seem to exist in the space of the French Society, so Algeria is always present in the debates and questions of the French MPs, and the most recent question was raised by the French MP on the traditional right, when he revived the issue of Algeria’s position of the return of Harkis to Algeria, and its refusal to enable them to visit their relatives who live in Algeria.

French MP focused on the file of freedom of Harkis’ movement between France and Algeria, and he recalls the statements that were made by the President Macron, during his visit to Algeria in December 2017, when he revealed that he asked the Algerian officials to empower the French who were born in Algeria from visiting this country.

The MP asked about the perceptions that the French authorities are setting up to find a solution to the Harki issue and the possibility of allowing them to visit Algeria, recalling the request that was made by the French President, Emmanuel Macron, in this regard during his visit to Algeria late last year, when he asked the Algerian authorities to allow the Harkis’ families to visit the country of their ancestors.

Previously, the French President, during his visit to Algeria last December, expressed his country’s rejection of mortgaging the bilateral relationships in the colonial past, before admitting that the file was heavier than any other file in the relationships between the two countries.

Macron did not hide that he asked the Algerian officials to empower the French citizens who were born in Algeria to return to it, even in order to visit their hometown and meet with their relatives. He then spoke of reciprocal steps between the two countries, referring to his decision to hand over the skulls of the martyrs to Algeria, which later formed the axis of Prime Minister, Ahmed Ouyahia’s visit to Paris, in the context of the Joint High Committee meeting for a step by the Algerian side to allow the Pieds-Noirs and the Harkis’ families to visit the land of their ancestors.

French Foreign Ministry said, at the end of last year, in a response to a parliamentary question on the same issue that the file of Harkis and their families between France and Algeria was addressed through negotiations between the two countries on the review of the December 27, 1968 Convention on the Movement of Persons.

French Foreign Ministry confirmed that this file was raised during the visits of French officials and confirmed that this issue is still under discussion, in the hope that it is included in the new item on the movement of people in the aforementioned Convention.

It is not the first time that the file of allowing Harkis to visit Algeria is raised by French MPs, as legislative sessions in France always raise questions on this file addressing the French Foreign Minister, and they are usually accompanied by pressures that are exerted especially by the traditional right during the election dates in France, but what is new in this time is the renewal of the demand that coincided with the call of the Prime Minister, Ahmed Ouyahia, for businessmen and business owners to work with the Pieds-Noirs and exploiting their influence to help Algerian enter the foreign markets, a statement that surprised the public opinion, especially that the high authorities in the country stand at a distance with many files because of France’s refusal to recognize its crimes in Algeria and apologize.