Midday, Wednesday January 26: the courtyard of the Elysée Palace comes alive with an unusual hubbub. At the invitation of the President of the Republic, several dozen representatives of repatriated associations, a few celebrities, including Enrico Macias, director Alexandre Arcady and actress Françoise Fabian, and a few mayors, such as that of Béziers (Hérault) , Robert Ménard, meet in the village hall of the presidential palace.
It’s a first. Emmanuel Macron evokes the shooting of the rue d’Isly, March 26, 1962 in Algiers, during which dozens of demonstrators gathered at the call of the OAS were killed by the French army. “Sixty years later, France recognizes this tragedy. This massacre is unforgivable for the Republic,” strikes the Head of State, who then recalls the killings of July 5, 1962 in Oran, perpetrated by Algerians. Several hundred Europeans killed that day. “This massacre, too, must be faced and recognized”, he pleads.
Emotion seizes the participants. Born in Oran in 1953 and repatriated in 1962 with his family, Robert Ménard, close to the National Rally (RN) and support of Marine Le Pen in the presidential election, does not hide it: ” I was touched “he tells the World. For sixty years he and his ilk have been waiting – often desperately – to hear this. The date chosen for this event is not neutral. Two months before the sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the Evian Accords, on March 18, 1962, experienced as a betrayal of France by Pied-noir circles, and less than three months before the first round of the presidential election, this initiative aims to coax this traumatized population.
across the throat
It is an understatement to say that five years earlier, the words of the man who was then only a presidential candidate had aroused strong disapproval. In the middle of the electoral campaign, on February 15, 2017, during a trip to Algeria, the former minister of François Hollande denounced colonization, calling it ” crime against humanity “.
A judgment that will earn him, and still earns him, great mistrust among the returnees and their associations. “Macron disappointed us when he spoke of a crime against humanity”, unanimously deplore Gérard, Marlène, Gisèle, Etienne and a few other returnees gathered at the headquarters of the electoral office of Patricia Mirallès. This daughter of returnees is a member of La République en Marche (LRM) for Hérault, in a constituency that includes the “pieds-noirs” district of Montpellier. They are all over 70, disembarked sixty years ago from a boat in Port-Vendres (Pyrénées-Orientales) or Marseille or from a plane in Marignane (Bouches-du-Rhône), and if they are not Macron supporters, they still support « [leur] Member of Parliament”, that they have seen growing up. The ace ! Despite this affective relationship, the pill ” crime against humanity ” got stuck in their throat.
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