How Switzerland helped Algeria to become independent

60 years after the signing of the "Evian Accords", the living actors of the negociations in French-speaking Switzerland were brought together in Lausanne and Geneva on the anniversary of the ceasefire for an outstanding symposium taking place March 19 and 20, 2022. Around Sarah Dekkiche, the organizer, some personalities specialized in the question (a journalist, a publisher, a son of a GPRA negotiator and historians among many other guests) were gathered to recall the eminently important role of Switzerland. The question of a "Swiss settlement" within the French colonial territory was raised. Even if we cannot talk about Switzerland, as a colonial country, the decolonization of Algeria revealed problems for the Swiss residents in Algeria that were very comparable to other european colonial countries residents in Algeria.

Picture of Swiss General Henri Guisan, visiting the Swiss residents of Algeria in 1951 (Swiss Federal Archives)