Algerian Parliament passes law criminalizing French colonialism while reserved key articles on apology and compensation
Algerian parliamentarians voted unanimously in favor of the text of the law criminalizing French colonialism in Algeria, but reserved 13 of the 27 articles, mainly related to the issues of compensation and apology.
Algerian Parliament considered that some articles of this law as a not fully reflect the official approach set by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who had earlier declared that the country didn’t need financial compensation from France.
A joint committee of members of both houses is expected to review the reserved articles before finalizing the text.
Minister of Mujahideen and People with Rights, Abdelmalek Tacherfit, said that this law expresses the popular will and enshrines the deep conviction of the Algerian people that the national memory cannot be compromised or divided.
Speaker of the National Assembly Azzouz Naciri praised the law, which will be an eternal witness to what French settler colonialism did in Algeria.
The law holds France legally responsible for its colonial past in Algeria and the tragedies it caused, and affirms that comprehensive and equitable compensation for all material and moral damages caused by French colonialism is an inalienable right of the Algerian state and people.
President Tebboune said in a speech to the parliament in both chambers on December 30, 2024, that “the martyr of the armed struggle won’t be returned billions of dollars… Don’t compensate me financially, I ask you to compensate me morally”.
France considers the bill clearly hostile, and President Emmanuel Macron before taking office acknowledged that his country’s colonization of Algeria was a crime against humanity, but Paris hasn’t offered an official apology to Algeria.
Algerian-French relations deteriorated in late 2024, when France formally supported Morocco’s plan to grant Western Sahara autonomy under its sovereignty, while Algeria supports the Polisario Front, which rejects autonomy and calls for granting the inhabitants of the Sahara region the right to self-determination.
