CHRISTIAN HARTMANN / AFP
Emmanuel Macron photographed during the tribute paid to Françoise Rudetzki on June 1 at the Invalides, in Paris (illustration).
POLITICS – It is a promise dating from his vows to the Armies that the Head of State is preparing to honor this Tuesday, October 18. In front of the military Emmanuel Macron undertook to pay an official tribute to the soldiers, conscripts or professionals, who fought between 1954 and 1962. And this, at the anniversary date of the law officially recognizing the war in Algeria “, he had announced.
Here we are. And it is at the Invalides that the Chief of the Armies will chair a ” taking up arms in honor of the veterans of this conflict “. A gesture which, according to the Elysée, “ is part of the will of the President of the Republic since 2017 to recognize the memories of colonization and the Algerian war to create the conditions for their appeasement”.
A sober ceremony
If the initiative is meant to be solemn, it is indeed a form of sobriety that prevails, so delicate is it to salute the commitment of soldiers deployed in a war of decolonization. What is more, in a conflict putting an end to colonization described by Emmanuel Macron himself as ” crime against humanity » in 2017.
Thus, and unlike the commemoration of Accords d’Evian, no speeches will be made. ” First, because it is not customary when taking up arms”justified in front of some journalists, including Le HuffPost, the Elysee. But also because the fact of bringing together the military formations bearing the history of the Algerian war and the conscripts was enough to recognize the merits and the value of the French who had done their duty”.
In other words: the format must not give an image other than that of a President of the Republic looking history in the face, without giving the impression of favoring one episode over another. Emmanuel Macron will thus decorate 15 veterans, including 11 called up.
All while emphasizing the republican character of the commitment of the French sent to the front. On this subject, the Elysée insists: The vast majority of French soldiers did not participate in the Algiers putsch “. One way to refute the caricature in ” colonial army which could be made of the French contingent in Algeria, which mobilized 1.42 million French people, including one million conscripts and 300,000 auxiliaries.
A commemorative “at the same time”
A period that mechanically affected “every French family” and which therefore leads the Head of State to recognize the sacrifices of those concerned. Which corresponds, in fact, to the recommendations of the Benjamin Stora report commissioned by Emmanuel Macron, evoking as an objective “the transition from a communitized memory to a common memory”.
Which explains this tweet published by the Head of State on the eve of this taking up of arms, evoking the massacre of October 17, 1951. “ In Paris, 61 years ago, the repression of a demonstration by Algerian separatists left hundreds injured and dozens dead. Inexcusable crimes for the Republic. France does not forget the victims. Truth is the only way to a shared future “wrote the head of state.
A sort of commemorative “at the same time” that the Élysée summarizes as follows: “ Going beyond memory compartmentalization so that everyone shares a common, peaceful memory, allowing the recognition of each person’s destiny and their emancipation within our society”. This Tuesday’s ceremony, sober in form and delicate in substance, is one of the links.
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