PARIS — The three-day visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Algeria keeps revibrating in both countries, generating both acclaims and criticism. Some Algerians slammed Macron for not apologizing directly over the colonial period and French crimes during the Algerian independence war, while French far-right politicians accuse Macron of humiliating France. 

On July 5, Algeria celebrated 60 years of independence after more than a century of French colonial rule. Since taking office, Macron has sought for his country to confront its colonial past in Africa in general, and Algeria in particular. Still, statements he made last year generated a diplomatic crisis with Algiers, when Macron questioned Algeria's existence as a nation before the French colonialism and accused the Algerian government of fomenting hatred toward France. 

At the time, Algeria revocated its ambassador from Paris and banned French military aircraft on their way to bases in the Sahel to pass thought its airspace. Macron has since gone back on these remarks. Subsequently, the Algerian ambassador was reinstated and French military flights allowed into Algerian skies. 

Already on the first day of his visit, Aug. 25, Macron announced that the two countries would set up a joint commission of historians to study archives on France's colonial rule in Algeria and the deadly Algerian independence war. He also announced that an additional 8,000 Algerian students would be admitted to study in French universities this year, joining 30,000 students already in the country.