This opportunity comes at the right time and certainly not a super-professional candidate like Christian Estrosi can let it slip by without reacting.
How can one not consider the numerical weight of the “repatriated” residents, their descendants, and their electoral influence?
In any scenario, Christian Estrosi will come out a winner. If the ministerial decision is favorable to him, hats off! In the negative case, he can always claim the merit of having tried. Well played!
“I wrote today to Florence Parly, Minister of the Armed Forces, to propose hosting, in Nice, the archives of the Central Service of Repatriates, which the State is considering consolidating on a single site.
I indeed wish to host in Nice, a university city where the Repatriates have contributed to economic development and the spread of knowledge and arts, the entirety of documents related to this chapter of our country’s history, currently scattered across various parts of the national territory. Bringing them together in Nice would be a strong message to our compatriots, forced into exile almost sixty years ago, to whom our city has always been welcoming. This has been my priority since 2008: to maintain a consistent and nourishing local policy in favor of the Pieds-Noirs and Harkis.”
We are the only city in France to have received in 2011 the High Patronage of the Presidency of the Republic on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Repatriation. It was on this occasion that the head of state, Nicolas Sarkozy, laid the first stone of the work dedicated to the Pieds-Noirs and Harkis, whose installation I decided on the Promenade des Anglais.”
I have also set up a professional integration scheme in favor of the children of Harkis within the City of Nice and the CCAS, but more broadly throughout the Nice Cรดte d’Azur Metropolis. Nice and the Southern Region thus became the first local authorities open to reserved employment, already allowing for more than thirty recruitments.
It is therefore quite logical that I wish to bring to life this memory of the presence of the French in Algeria on our territory, which hosts a large number of Repatriates and is only separated from the other shore by the Mediterranean Sea. The creation of this research center in Nice would constitute an important added value for a better understanding of the Truth. Furthermore, we have infrastructures in Nice absolutely suitable for housing and consulting these archives in the best conditions.
I stand at the disposal of the State authorities for any preliminary study or analysis necessary to realize this proposal to host the archives of the Central Service of Repatriates. It would be a great pride for our city, which serves as a welcoming land, and a token of recognition towards our Repatriates.”
