Macron Maneuvers Again By Leveraging The Burning Memory File

French President Emmanuel Macron intensified his flirtations with Algeria through the window of memory, in a desperate attempt to lure Algerian authorities into resuming the severed diplomatic bridges since last summer, following Paris’s support for the Moroccan regime’s thesis in Western Sahara.

And although previous initiatives did not stir anything in Algeria, the master of the Élysée Palace insists on some symbolic gestures in the field of memory, the latest being the dispatch of the French ambassador to Algeria, Stéphane Romatet, to the martyrs’ square in the El Alia cemetery in the capital with the aim of laying a wreath on the grave of the heroic martyr, Larbi Ben M’Hidi.

In a tweet from the French Embassy in Algeria on Tuesday, on its account on “X”: “In the opinion of the President of the Republic (of France), work must continue for truth and recognition,” in a clear call for the Algerian side to continue joint work on the memory file, which is overseen, as is known, by the Franco-Algerian joint committee, composed of historians from both sides, and chaired by Lahcen Zghidi on the Algerian side and historian Benjamin Stora on the French side.

The French embassy in Algeria wrote in a second tweet: “The French ambassador to Algeria, Stéphane Romatet, visited the Martyrs’ Square in the El Alia cemetery today (Tuesday) at the request of the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and on his behalf, and laid a wreath on the grave of Larbi Ben M’Hidi.”

The French ambassador’s visit to the international cemetery to pay respects to the martyr hero Larbi Ben Mhidi came 19 days after Macron acknowledged the French state’s responsibility in the assassination of the martyr hero.

The French embassy did not mention the occasion it exploited to carry out this act, and this move was not on any of the prominent days commemorating the armed struggle against the odious French occupation, as the assassination took place on the night of March 3-4, 1957.
This raises the question of the choice of the day, unless it was merely a “foolish” attempt by the French president to draw the Algerian side’s attention to the necessity of resuming the work of the mixed historians’ committee, which has practically been inactive.

Macron’s acknowledgment of the French state’s responsibility in the brutal and savage assassination of the martyr Arab Ben Mhiidi by the French occupation army did not stir a single hair among the officials in Algeria, who completely ignored this initiative. In response, Macron made another initiative, which observers believe also passes as if it were a cry in a deep valley.

Moreover, the French acknowledgment of responsibility for the assassination of the martyr hero Larbi Ben Mhidi, in itself, holds little political or historical value, because the war criminal, General Paul Aussaresses, had confessed in 2000 in a book, in statements reported by the French newspaper “Le Monde,” that the martyr was strangled by his men in a farm in El-Madania (near the capital Algiers) owned by a French settler.

Algerians view Macron’s initiatives as a calculated policy aimed at deceiving them through a systematic drip-feed approach, to give the illusion that France has done what it is supposed to do, while in reality, it has offered nothing significant.
Everyone, whether French or Algerian, knows for certain that the assassination of the anti-French occupation activist, Maurice Audin, and the murder of the revolutionary and lawyer of the liberation revolution, Ali Boumendjel, as well as the martyr Ben Mhidi, were carried out by the colonial French army.

The mixed committee tasked with discussing the memory file was supposed to meet last July, but the French president’s involvement in supporting the Moroccan regime’s stance on Western Sahara effectively halted its work, even though this was not officially announced.
“Echorouk” reported, citing informed sources, that there is no intention on the part of the Algerian section of the committee to return to negotiation sessions, and it rejected the piecemeal approach practiced by Macron in dealing with this file.

According to many observers, the French president is working hard to establish a strategy in dealing with Algeria, based on separating the memory file from the rest of the bilateral relations, so that bilateral relations do not suffer when he commits “follies,” as he did last summer by falling into the embrace of the Alaouite regime in Rabat. This is a strategy that the Algerian side has likely noticed and rejected.