- In recent years, historians on both sides have documented numerous abuses, including arbitrary killings and detentions, committed by French troops, a history that continues to cloud Franco-Algerian relations to this day.
PARIS: A prominent French journalist announced Sunday he was stepping down as an expert analyst for broadcaster RTL after sparking outrage by comparing France's colonial rule in Algeria to the Nazi massacres in France during World War II.
Jean-Michel Afati, a veteran reporter and broadcaster, said that while he has no plans to return to RTL, he stands by his comments made on the radio station in late February in which he equated France's atrocities in Algeria with those of Nazi Germany in occupied France.
“I will not return to RTL. This is my decision,” the journalist wrote on X after the radio station suspended him from the air for a week.
On February 25, he said on air: “Every year in France we commemorate what happened in Oradour-sur-Glane, the massacre of an entire village. But we have committed hundreds of similar massacres in Algeria. Do we know about it?”
He was referring to the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, where on June 10, 1944, an SS unit returning to the front in Normandy killed 642 inhabitants. Leaving a chilling memorial for future generations, the village was never rebuilt.
When asked by the presenter whether “we (the French) behaved like Nazis,” Afati replied: “The Nazis behaved like us.”
In an interview with X, he acknowledged that his comments had sparked “debate” but said it was vital to understand the full history of the French presence in Algeria from 1830 to 1962, adding that he was “horrified” by what he had read in history books.
After a week's suspension from the channel, this means that “if I return to RTL, I will confirm this and admit that I made a mistake. This is a line that cannot be crossed.”
His comments prompted a flood of complaints to audiovisual regulator Arcom, which launched an investigation.
France's conduct in Algeria during the 1954-62 war that led to the country's independence, as well as in previous decades, remains the subject of often painful debate in both countries.
In recent years, historians on both sides have documented numerous abuses, including arbitrary killings and detentions, committed by French troops, a history that continues to cloud Franco-Algerian relations to this day.
France's far right has long defended the French policies of those years, including Algerian war veteran Jean-Marie Le Pen, who co-founded the National Front (NF) party and died earlier this year, drawing much of his support from French settlers who were forced to return after independence.
