Algeria’s parliament on Wednesday officially labelled the 132 years of French colonisation as a crime against its citizens.
The parliament also demanded an apology from the French government over the incidents that occurred during the colonial rule.
Standing in the chamber, Algerian lawmakers wearing scarves in the colours of the national flag chanted, “Long live Algeria” as they applauded the passage of the bill, which states that France holds “legal responsibility for its colonial past in Algeria and the tragedies it caused”.
The vote comes as the two countries are embroiled in a major diplomatic crisis, and while analysts say the move is largely symbolic it is still politically significant.
Parliament speaker Brahim Boughali told the news agency before the vote that labelling French colonisation as a crime would send “a clear message, both internally and externally, that Algeria’s national memory is neither erasable nor negotiable”.
The legislation lists the “crimes of French colonisation”, including nuclear tests, extrajudicial killings, “physical and psychological torture”, and the “systematic plundering of resources”.
It states that “full and fair compensation for all material and moral damages caused by French colonisation is an inalienable right of the Algerian state and people”.
France’s rule over Algeria from 1830 until 1962 remains a sore spot in relations between the two countries. The period was marked by mass killings and large-scale deportations.
The relationship between Algiers and Paris has long been haunted by the scars of the War of Independence (1954–1962).
Algeria had claimed that the war killed 1.5 million people while French historians put the death toll lower, at 500,000 in total, some 400,000 of them Algerian.
French President Emmanuel Macron has previously acknowledged the colonisation of Algeria as a “crime against humanity” but has stopped short of offering an apology.
Asked last week about the vote, French foreign ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux said he would not comment on “political debates taking place in foreign countries”.
Also, Algerian lawmakers have been demanding that France return a 16th-century bronze cannon, known as Baba Merzoug, meaning “Blessed Father”, that was regarded as the protector of Algiers, now Algeria’s capital.
The lawmakers had claimed that French forces captured the city in 1830, on their third attempt, and removed the cannon, which they said is now in the port city of Brest in north-western France.
In 2020, France returned the remains of 24 Algerian fighters who were killed resisting French colonial forces in the 19th Century.
Last month, Algeria hosted a conference of African states to push for justice and reparations.
Algeria’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf said that a legal framework would ensure that restitution was neither regarded as “a gift nor a favour”.
