France must get rid of its 'colonizer complex': Algerian president

ALGIERS, Algeria

The Algerian president has said "France must get rid of its colonizer complex," according to local media.

"The relations between the two countries need -- in order to cool down -- France to liberate itself from its colonizer complex and Algeria from its colonized complex," Abdelmadjid Tebboune told the French daily Le Figaro in an interview on Thursday.

He added that the image of Algeria must change as "the country is far more different than what it was in 1962."

The Algerian leader announced his plans for an official visit to Paris in 2023, and said his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron "is the incarnation of a new generation that can save the relations between the two countries."

Tebboune also noted the need to "depoliticize and leave to history certain parts of the colonization," justifying the decision to set up commissions of historians on both sides.

He also urged France to "decontaminate the nuclear test scenes at Reggane and Tamanrasset (in southern Algeria) and cover medical treatments of the people in those areas."

*Writing by Nur Asena Erturk in Ankara