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Algeria’s Senate on Thursday called for amendments to a law criminalising France’s colonial rule, nearly a month after parliament passed the measure.
On December 24, parliament’s lower house unanimously approved the law declaring France’s 1830–1962 colonisation a crime and demanding an apology and reparations. The Senate, however, said several articles did not fully align with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s official stance, which said Algeria does not need financial reparations from France.
As a result, a joint committee comprising members from both chambers will review the disputed provisions before finalising the text, since the Senate cannot amend laws passed by the lower house.
France has described the bill as “clearly hostile,” amid broader diplomatic tensions with Algeria. Relations soured in late 2024 after France formally backed Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, a move Algeria opposes and supports the Polisario Front.
The bill asserts France bears “legal responsibility for its colonial past in Algeria and the tragedies it caused,” listing alleged crimes of colonisation such as nuclear tests, extrajudicial killings, “physical and psychological torture,” and the “systematic plundering of resources.” It also states that “full and fair compensation for all material and moral damages” from colonisation is an “inalienable right” of the Algerian state and people.
Tebboune, however, in December 2024, said Algiers was “not tempted by money, neither euros nor dollars,” and called for recognition of the crimes without financial compensation. Macron previously acknowledged colonial Algeria as a “crime against humanity,” but France has yet to offer a formal apology.
Experts note that Algeria’s war of independence cost an estimated 1.5 million lives, though French historians place the toll lower, at around 500,000, with about 400,000 being Algerian.
