Why Macron won’t say sorry for France’s colonial past in Algeria - the 2022 presidential election

Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to apologise for France’s colonial past in Algeria could have to do with heading off the far right in 2022 presidential elections, reports Peter Allen in Paris

Algerians drinking coffee under a wall covered with pro-independence graffiti in 1962 (AFP via Getty Images)

Emmanuel Macron is set to become the first French President ever to commemorate the murders of scores of Algerians by Paris police – while refusing to apologise for such atrocities or investigate them properly.

The contradiction is raised in a new official report into France’s 132-year colonial rule of Algeria and the savage war of independence that ended it.

It has led to accusations that Mr Macron wants to win over French voters from Algerian backgrounds, while also courting French nationalists who glorify their old Empire.