French official blasts repentence issue
Mon Feb 5, 3:44 AM ET
PARIS - France's foreign minister warned Monday against a "permanent repentance" for colonialism and said his country should invest more in oil-rich former colony Algeria.
Philippe Douste-Blazy spoke after Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal sent a message to Algeria's president over the weekend saying it was time for France to come to terms with its colonial history.
Douste-Blazy bristled at the message. "We should watch out for a bad conscience and permanent repentance," he said on Europe-1 radio. "We must turn the page, be able to look at Algeria as an equal partner."
Douste-Blazy is a member of the conservative ruling party UMP, whose candidate Nicolas Sarkozy slightly leads Royal in the polls ahead of the April-May presidential vote.
Long a thorny issue, France's colonial history came under the spotlight in 2005 after the UMP-led parliament passed a law citing the positive effects of colonialism. The contentious language was later removed, but many nations remain bitter.
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has long demanded that France apologize for colonial-era crimes.
Royal sent an envoy, Jack Lang, to visit Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika over the weekend with a message urging France to look its colonial history "in the face." Algeria was the jewel in France's colonial crown, and won its independence in 1962 after a brutal war.
Douste-Blazy appealed for France to boost investment in Algeria, whose economy is gaining ground after a crippling insurgency in the 1990s.
"There are $95 billion in privatization deals in the next three or four years. The Americans, the British, the Spanish and others are already there, while the French are still battling guilt," he said.