France has taken a significant step toward repairing its strained relationship with Algeria, returning its ambassador to Algiers and sending a senior minister to attend ceremonies marking one of the most painful episodes of colonial history. French Deputy Armed Forces Minister Alice Rufo travelled to Sétif, a city in eastern Algeria, on Friday to commemorate the May 8, 1945 repression, in which French colonial forces violently crushed pro-independence protests. Ambassador Stéphane Romatet, who had been recalled to Paris more than a year ago amid a sharp diplomatic crisis, returned alongside her to resume his duties. The Élysée Palace described the visit as reflecting a "determination to address relations between France and Algeria with honesty, while respecting all the memories connected to them" and to "restore an effective dialogue."
The Sétif massacre occurred on the same day France and its allies celebrated victory over Nazi Germany. Pro-independence demonstrators took to the streets, and the crackdown that followed — extending to nearby Guelma and Kherrata — lasted several days. Algerian authorities put the death toll at 45,000; French sources have cited figures ranging from 1,500 to 20,000. No commonly accepted official count exists. Rufo acknowledged that "tragic events" had unfolded in those towns while France celebrated liberation, and she laid a wreath in honour of Bouzid Saal, a young activist killed that day for carrying an Algerian flag. Some historians and political scientists noted that President Emmanuel Macron's use of the phrase "tragic events" — rather than stronger language — echoes terminology that France used for decades to avoid fully confronting its colonial past.
Relations between Paris and Algiers have been under severe strain since 2024, when France formally backed Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara territory — a position at odds with Algeria, which supports the Polisario Front independence movement. Tensions deepened further with the arrest of French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal in Algeria, his subsequent pardon last November, and separate charges in France against an Algerian consular official accused of involvement in the alleged abduction of an Algerian government critic. Friday's visit is the second by a French cabinet member in under three months, following Interior Minister Laurent Nunez's trip to Algeria in February.
Despite the warming signals, one significant obstacle remains. Christophe Gleizes, a 37-year-old French sports journalist, has been held in Algeria since May 2024, when he was arrested in the Kabylia region while reporting on Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie, Algeria's most decorated football club. He was sentenced to seven years in prison for "glorifying terrorism" after being accused of contact with a member of the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie, a diaspora-based group designated a terrorist organisation by Algiers. His family announced last week that Gleizes had withdrawn his appeal to Algeria's highest court — a move widely interpreted as clearing the way for a presidential pardon. The Élysée confirmed that securing Gleizes's return to France would be a priority for the ambassador as he resumes his post.