Letter from Paris: France has two histories: a left- wing history and a right-wing history. That paradox was more evident than ever in a debate in the National Assembly last week.
The left portrayed the 132-year colonisation of Algeria in terms of exploitation, humiliation, massacres and torture, while the right described a civilising mission that eradicated epidemics, built schools, roads, ports and airports and bestowed the French language upon the north African country.
No one from the ruling right- wing UMP explained the glaring inconsistency of the two historical debates of recent days.
On the one hand, leading right- wing politicians shied away from celebrating the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's greatest victory at Austerlitz because they did not want to be associated with the emperor's re-establishing slavery.
On the other hand, the right fought tooth and nail to preserve a law that would put a positive gloss on France's colonial history. Article 4 of the Law of 23 February 2005 stipulates that "school programmes recognise in particular the positive role of the French overseas presence, notably in North Africa".
The socialists admitted that they "lacked vigilance" in letting the law slip through last winter. When it was published in the Journal Officiel, history professors were so appalled that they launched an internet petition against article 4, which has since been signed by more than 1,000 historians.
On November 10th, in the midst of three weeks of rioting in the immigrant Banlieues, the socialists submitted a draft law that would have repealed the offending text. On November 29th, they lost the battle.
One in six Frenchmen has a personal link to colonial history. There was consensus in the French political class on compensation for Pieds Noirs (Europeans who were forced to flee north Africa) and for the Harkis, Algerians who fought on the side of the French during the 1954-1962 war.
But the clause on the teaching of history was the work of right- wing deputies from southern French constituencies with large numbers of Pieds Noirs and sympathisers of the Organisation of the Secret Army (OAS), which killed up to 2,000 people in its attempt to keep Algeria French.
President Jacques Chirac fought as a lieutenant in the French army during the Algerian war and he had hoped to make Franco-Algerian reconciliation a crowning achievement of his presidency. He and President Abdelaziz Bouteflika were to have signed a friendship treaty by the end of this year, comparable to the 1963 treaty that sealed France's partnership with Germany.
In July, however, both houses of the Algerian parliament condemned France's Law of 23 February, which Mr Bouteflika called "an act of mental blindness bordering on negationism and revisionism".
France will have to ask Algeria's forgiveness before there can be a treaty, he now says.
Lionnel Luca, a UMP deputy from Alpes-Maritimes, called Mr Bouteflika's statements "scandalous" and mocked 'Boutef' for spending the past week in a Paris hospital to be treated for stomach trouble.
"He's not vindictive, since he comes to us for medical care, which is all the same a beautiful homage to the colonisers," Mr Luca said.
The debate over article 4 shows how fresh the wounds of the Algerian war are, 43 years after it ended. With the fading of Gaullism and in the wake of last month's riots, there's a new, unapologetic militancy on the right.
"Our country is exhausted by repentance and self-flagellation," Jean-Claude Guibal, also a UMP deputy from Alpes-Maritimes, said. "We've had enough of being expected to ask forgiveness for everything."
The left said article 4 sent a "disastrous message" to the Arab and African sons of immigrants from former colonies who rioted last month, but Mr Guibal and other right-wing deputies twisted the argument.
"If we really want to integrate young people who've only recently acquired French nationality," he said, "Let's make them proud to be French, which implies that we must be proud ourselves . . . How could these youths feel solidarity with a people who never stop accusing themselves of mistreating their fathers? Should we be surprised that they feel, as they say, only hatred towards us?"
Earlier French laws banned Holocaust negation, recognised the Turkish genocide against the Armenians and defined the slave trade as a crime against humanity. A 1999 law finally labelled the Algerian conflict a war - but this is the first time that legislating history has proved so controversial.
The morning-long exchange of insults across the semi-circle of the National Assembly was a mere exercise in bombast.
The education minister says French textbooks will not be changed. Hamlaoui Mékachéra, the minister for war veterans, said article 4 "is purely declaratory" and that "there is no question of imposing an official version of history." The clause is likely to fall into abeyance.
A senate report published on December 1st said that 20 per cent of French laws passed since 1981 never came into force.
