Emmanuel Macron is to allow access to classified national defence documents from more than 50 years ago, covering France’s war in Algeria and other files previously deemed to contain state secrets.
The Élysée said the move, a week after the admission that French troops tortured and killed the Algerian independence activist Ali Boumendjel in 1957, sought to balance “historical truth” with legitimate “national defence issues”.
A recommendation to drop the secret défense classification for documents relating to the years up to 1970, particularly those pertaining to French colonisation and the Algerian conflict, was a key element in a recent report by the historian Benjamin Stora commissioned by the president.
Stora highlighted the need for France to “face up to its history” and also suggested creating a “truth and memory” commission to reconcile “the two shores of the Mediterranean”.
The declassification, which has to be drawn up into legislation expected to be passed before the summer, has also been welcomed by families of passengers who died onboard an Air France flight from Ajaccio in Corsica to Nice on 11 September 1968.
Campaigners believe a French navy vessel mistakenly shot down the Caravelle aircraft over the Mediterranean during a military exercise. However, all attempts to obtain official documents from the era have been thwarted by the secret défense classification.
In 2019, on the 51st anniversary of the crash, Margaret O’Connor, whose father, Arthur, was among 94 people who died, said the tragedy haunted her family every year. “It’s like a splinter that never goes away,” she said. “We think we know anyway, but we need to hear it. We don’t understand how they can keep it a secret after 51 years.”
Matthew Paoli, 76, one of three brothers orphaned when they lost their mother, Toussainte, 59, and father, Ange-Marie, 60, in the crash, said on Wednesday he hoped the release of classified documents would finally shed light on the incident. He said Macron’s initiative could “answer the torment that has haunted us for decades”.
“It’s been a long wait,” Paoli said. “We understand the Caravelle file should be among those being declassified, but we will have to see if all the information is actually in the documents and they haven’t been redacted. I hope it’s good news and we will know the truth in time for this year’s anniversary. If not we have to continue the fight,” he said.
Lawyers for the Carvavelle families said opening the archives was good news. “For years the two investigating judges responsible for the case have battled in vain to obtain documents that were presumably classified as defence secrets,” Paul Sollano, a lawyer for the families’ campaign association. “It’s possible we may also discover elements we have not previously known.”
In an open letter to Le Monde two months ago, a group of French archivists and historians complained about the “systematic application” of refusals to their demands for official documents on the grounds they were classified under national defence.
“To be blocked from access to documents in this way for months, and sometimes years, has hindered work on some of the most sensitive episodes of our recent past, whether it be the occupation, the colonial wars or the history of the fourth republic and the beginning of the fifth,” they wrote.
A petition calling for an end to “unacceptable restrictions” placed on access to archives was signed by 18,000 people. Campaigners said the criteria for deciding whether a document should be declassified were vague and “open the way for an arbitrary management of access to the national archives”.
A statement from the Élysée announcing the declassification of files more than 50 years old read: “It is the state’s responsibility to articulate in a balanced manner freedom of access to archives and the fair protection of the higher interests of the nation through the secrecy of national defence.
“Determined to promote respect for historical truth, the president of the republic has heard the demands of the academic community to facilitate access to classified archives that are more than 50 years old.”
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