Algeria’s parliament has unanimously passed a law declaring France’s colonisation of the country a crime, formally calling for an apology and reparations from Paris in a move French authorities have described as “hostile.”
Lawmakers, many wearing scarves in Algeria’s national colours, stood in the chamber chanting “long live Algeria” and applauding as the bill was adopted. The legislation asserts that France bears “legal responsibility for its colonial past in Algeria and the tragedies it caused.”
The vote comes amid a deepening diplomatic rift between Algiers and Paris. While the law is mainly symbolic, analysts say it carries significant political and historical weight, particularly amid long-standing tensions over how the colonial period is remembered and addressed.
Parliament Speaker Brahim Boughali said the legislation sends “a clear message, both internally and externally, that Algeria’s national memory is neither erasable nor negotiable,” according to the APS state news agency.
The law outlines what it describes as the “crimes of French colonisation,” including nuclear testing, extrajudicial killings, physical and psychological torture, and the systematic plundering of Algeria’s resources.
It further 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 reacted sharply to the development. A spokesperson for the French foreign ministry criticised the law as counterproductive to “the desire to resume Franco-Algerian dialogue and to calm discussions on historical issues.”
The official added that France is “not in the business of commenting on Algerian domestic politics,” but noted President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to establish a joint commission of historians to examine the colonial period.
France colonised Algeria in 1830 and ruled the country for more than 130 years before Algeria gained independence in 1962 following a brutal war. The legacy of that era remains a sensitive and contentious issue in relations between the two countries.