ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates two things: first, how an initially domestic debate evolved into a serious bilateral crisis between France and Algeria; second, how the French government responded by a double discourse to the diverging requests emerging from the domestic scene on the one hand and to claims made by the Algerian side on the other. It focuses on the dynamic societal and political discourse in France, the Algerian War in the last decade. French colonial policy in Algeria was different in character from the policies followed in other North African French-ruled territories. Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and members of his Socialist Party subsequently opposed the issuance of a declaration of collective apology, the systematic crimes in Algeria. Mohamed Badjaoui insisted that in order to successfully conclude the bilateral treaty all historical issues that exert a negative reminiscence should be purged and emphasized.
