It took 60 years to build a reconciliation

In 1954, while some Algerians joined the National Liberation Front (FLN) to fight for the independence of their country, others chose France and joined the French army. The latter, mostly civilians armed by France, were tasked with ensuring the security of strategic points, villages, or sometimes larger areas, but also with participating in military operations alongside the French army. The end of the conflict resulted, for both the pieds-noirs and the former auxiliaries - those we have come to call harkis - in heartbreak, exile, or horror for those who remained in the country, deemed traitors to their homeland. On September 20, 2021, the President of the Republic spoke before the harkis and their families. He asked the harkis for forgiveness, recognized the damage they suffered, admitted that they had been abandoned by France, and that some had been welcomed under unworthy conditions in metropolitan France from 1962 onwards. The law, recognizing the Nation's debt to the harkis and other repatriates from Algeria, also includes reparation for the harm suffered. It was promulgated on February 23, 2022. It took 60 years. 60 years to allow our country to look lucidly at the wounds of the past and to build, over the long term, a reconciliation of memories.