for Macron, a meeting between France and Algeria « would be a good thing to ward off the past »
Traveling to Algiers, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that a friendly football match between France and Algeria « would be a good thing to ward off the past » because « sport must reconcile ».
« I think it would be a good thing to ward off the past« replied the Head of State, questioned by journalists on the advisability of a new meeting between the two teams, more than 20 years after the friendly match of October 6, 2001 which ended with an invasion of the Stade de France pitch by Algerian supporters a quarter of an hour from the end.
« We will obviously talk about it with the president (Abdelmadjid Tebboune) and his teams, it is not for me to say, and then it will also depend on the chance of the competitions to come, for some, I wish us“, he said, after a long visit to the European cemetery of Saint-Eugene, in the suburbs of Algiers, on the second day of his visit to Algeria.
« I think that sport must reconcile, so that’s why, tomorrow in Oran, I will be with our athletes in anticipation of the Olympicsof 2024 organized in Paris, he added.
« Culture, as I mentioned yesterday in the press conference, and sport, these are fields where we must be together, so sometimes we can compete, but we compete in a friendly way“, insisted Mr. Macron.
The French president and his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, sealed their reconciliation on Thursday after months of diplomatic quarrels, particularly around French colonization (1830-1962).
SEE ALSO – Algerian war: Macron rejects any « repentance » and calls to look at the past « with courage »
