How does the French Prime Minister in charge of colonialism and immigration view it?

The previous positions of the newly appointed French Prime Minister, François Bayrou, can be traced, especially regarding his country’s colonial past in Algeria, as well as the issue of immigration and immigrants, which are the main issues that usually govern the relations between Algeria and Paris, currently going through one of its worst phases.
At first glance, it is difficult to classify François Bayrou in terms of his political creed, as he does not belong to either of the two dominant political families in France, the right and the left. He presents himself as a centrist and heads the Democratic Movement party (MoDem). He usually supports the candidate he believes will win; he supported Nicolas Sarkozy when he won the 2007 presidential election, then turned against him to support François Hollande, the winner in 2012, before supporting the current French president, Emmanuel Macron, in the 2017 and 2022 elections. But does he have a stance on his country’s colonial past in Algeria?
And what is his position on the immigration issue, which here implicitly refers to immigrants from Maghreb and African nationalities, most of whom are Muslim communities that suffer from unjust discrimination in a country its officials present as a land of freedom and democracy?
The last statement by the French Prime Minister, appointed by Emmanuel Macron to form the government, regarding France’s colonial past in Algeria dates back to 2017, specifically following the provocative and unprecedented statement by the current French president, Emmanuel Macron, on this issue from Algeria when he visited it as a candidate and received a warm welcome from the country’s officials at that time.
That day, Macron described the French colonization of Algeria as a “crime against humanity,” and this characterization caused a commotion in the political and media circles in France, considering that the man was a strong candidate for the presidency of France. The right and far-right reacted violently against him, forcing him to retract that statement immediately after returning to his country.
For the appointed French Prime Minister, what Macron said in Algeria about seven years ago is “incomprehensible.” François Bayrou even considers Macron’s description of colonialism to be “a statement that wounds many French people and does not align with historical truth,” as he claims, believing that “crimes against humanity do not expire over time, and they aim to erase a part of humanity from the face of the earth,” according to the website “France Info.”
As Bayrou hinted in his comment on Macron’s characterization of colonialism as a “crime against humanity,” it could be considered a whitewashing of the dark image of colonialism wherever it was, when he said: “What this episode of French presence in Algeria and Africa was does not at all align with that,” and then he quickly played both sides by lamenting the “suffering caused by colonialism in all directions and in all camps.”
In short, it can be said that François Bayrou acknowledges that French colonialism caused tragedies for colonized peoples, including the Algerian people, but he does not dare to say that French colonialism committed brutal massacres against the Algerian people, as acknowledged by many objective French politicians, military personnel, and historians.
Regarding immigration, François Bayrou does not show the same concerns about immigration and immigrants as the right and far-right do. The immigration law passed by both chambers of the French Parliament (the National Assembly and the Senate) under the government of Élisabeth Borne at the beginning of 2024 did not receive Bayrou’s support, as he, the mayor of Pau, opposed the law on the grounds that “the time was not right.”
Regarding this matter, he said: “I am a mayor. I have hundreds of immigrants in my city. I know there can be deviations. When people say that the law is not needed, that is criminal. But this law only makes sense if it achieves balance.” Therefore, it can be said that Bayrou is not an example in relations with Algeria, but he is much better than the faces of the far-right.