Algeria’s parliament unanimously passed a bill criminalizing France’s colonization of North Africa and demanding an apology and compensation.
The law also criminalizes the glorification of colonialism, state TV reported.
The vote is the latest sign of increasingly strained diplomatic relations between the two countries, which some observers said were at their lowest level since Algeria gained independence 63 years ago.
French colonization of Algeria from 1830 to 1962 was marked by genocide and mass deportations and ended in a bloody war of independence. Algeria says the war killed 1.5 million people, while French historians say the death toll is much lower.
French President Emmanuel Macron previously acknowledged that Algeria’s colonial rule was a “crime against humanity,” but did not apologize.
Lawmakers wore national flag-colored scarves and applauded the passage of the bill in parliament, shouting “Long live Algeria,” AFP reported.
The bill states that France is “legally responsible” for “the tragedies it has caused” and that “full and fair” compensation is “an inalienable right of the Algerian nation and people.”
France has not yet commented on the vote.
It comes at a time of growing pressure from Western powers to provide reparations for slavery and colonialism and to return looted artifacts still stored in museums.
Algerian lawmakers have been demanding that France return the 16th-century bronze cannon known as Baba Merzoug, meaning ‘blessed father’, considered the protector of Algiers, now the capital of Algeria.
The French took the city for the third time in 1830 and removed the cannons in what is now the port city of Brest in northwestern France.
In 2020, France returned the remains of 24 Algerian fighters who died resisting French colonial forces in the 19th century.
Last month, Algeria hosted a conference of African countries to call for justice and reparations.
Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf said a legal framework would be put in place to ensure compensation was not considered a “gift or favour”.
Diplomatic relations between Algeria and France soured last year when President Macron announced that France would recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara and support a limited autonomy plan for the disputed region.
Algeria supports the Polisario Front, which supports independence for Western Sahara, and is considered a key ally.
French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal was pardoned by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune last month after being arrested at Algiers airport in 2019 and sentenced to five years in prison.
Prosecutors said he undermined national security by making comments questioning Algeria’s borders.
