Algeria’s parliament has unanimously passed a law declaring France’s colonisation of the country a crime, calling for an apology and reparations—a move Paris described as “hostile.”
Lawmakers wearing scarves in the national colours stood in the chamber, chanting “long live Algeria” and applauding the bill, which 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 the two countries. While largely symbolic, analysts say the legislation carries significant political weight.
Parliament speaker Brahim Boughali told the APS state news agency that the law sends “a clear message, both internally and externally, that Algeria’s national memory is neither erasable nor negotiable.”
The legislation details what it terms the “crimes of French colonisation,” including nuclear testing, extrajudicial killings, physical and psychological torture, and the systematic plundering of resources. It also affirms 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.”
A French foreign ministry spokesperson condemned the law as counterproductive to “the desire to resume Franco-Algerian dialogue and to calm discussions on historical issues.” The official added that Paris is “not in the business of commenting on Algerian domestic politics” but highlighted efforts by President Emmanuel Macron to establish a commission of historians to study the colonial period.
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