Emmanuel Macron has decided to facilitate access to classified archives over 50 years old, in particular those on the Algerian war, as recommended in the report by historian Benjamin Stora. The Head of State “took the decision to allow the archives to proceed tomorrow [mercredi] declassifications of documents covered by national defense secrecy […] up to the records of the year 1970 included, ”said the Elysee on Tuesday in a press release.
“This decision will be likely to significantly shorten the waiting times linked to the declassification procedure, particularly with regard to documents relating to the Algerian war”, according to the text. This announcement comes a week after the President’s recognition, “in the name of France”, that the lawyer and nationalist leader Ali Boumendjel had been “tortured and murdered” by the French army during the Algerian war in 1957.
“Reconcile memories” and “look history in the face”
These appeasement gestures are recommended in the report submitted to the president on January 20 by Benjamin Stora with the aim of “reconciling memories” and “looking history in the face”. The decision on the archives “shows that we are going very quickly”, underlines the Élysée. But its scope goes beyond the framework of the History of Algeria and Emmanuel Macron “has heard the demands of the university community” who complains of the difficulties of access to classified archives over 50 years old due to the scrupulous application. a circular on the protection of national defense secrets.
“The government has initiated legislative work to adjust the point of consistency between the Heritage Code and the Penal Code in order to strengthen the communicability of documents, without compromising national security and defense”, specifies the Elysee. With the aim of achieving a new device “before the summer of 2021”.
While welcoming the recent decisions taken by Emmanuel Macron, the Algerian authorities have been demanding for years the opening of the colonial archives as well as the settlement of the question of the “disappeared” of the war of independence, more than 2,200 people, according to Algiers. , and that of French nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara. “Symbolic gestures can only have significance if they are supported by citizen mobilizations on each of the issues: archives, nuclear tests, the missing”, stressed Benjamin Stora at the beginning of March in an interview with the French-speaking daily. El Watan.
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