France’s Macron says it’s time to move on from Algeria’s colonial past

President Emmanuel Macron visited Algeria on Wednesday, where he pressed for a new chapter in relations with the North African country and said he would not be held hostage by France’s colonial past, Reuters reported. Macron is in the capital Algiers for talks with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika as he looks to bolster social and trade ties between the countries. During the 1954-1962 independence war, hundreds of thousands of Algerians were killed, and torture was used by both sides. Bouteflika, 80, is one of the war veterans who fought against French occupation. The French leader is unlikely to go any further than his predecessor, Francois Hollande, who described his country’s colonization of Algeria as “brutal and unfair,” but stopped short of apologizing.