Algeria’s President of the Council of the Nation Salah Goudjil has described the French presence in Algeria as "exterminating colonialism", an Algerian news agency has said.
"French colonialism in Algeria was a colonialism of extermination," he said, shortly after French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna made a statement about a verse on colonization being reinstated into the Algerian national anthem.
According to Goudjil, France must recognize and deal with the consequences of its past actions, particularly in terms of memory and justice.
Traces of Colonialism?
Goudjil reportedly pointed out that many French people did not understand the distinction between the French people and French colonialism, whose reactions, whether old, new or renewed, were all the same.
"The remnants of French colonialism still exist and they've managed to comment on our national anthem," he said, as quoted by the media.
He stressed, however, that Algeria did not regard France as an enemy, but rather as a partner with whom it enjoys complex and varied relations.
Anthem of Discord?
Recently the president of the Arab country issued a decree authorizing the Algerian anthem Kassaman to be played in its unabridged form under certain circumstances. However, this implies the reintegration of a rarely-played verse evoking French colonization.
This didn't sit well with Paris, whose head of diplomacy questioned Algiers' motivation in bringing this verse to the fore.
For his part, the Algerian foreign minister expressed surprise at Paris's reaction, evoking an impression of political manipulation. He ironized by inviting Colonna to also criticize the anthem's music.