He was a torturator, the essential thing he saw was torture, and he had no difficulty in assuming it: “If a person has to be tortured to save another hundred, then torture is inevitable; and it is also fair when action is taken in exceptional circumstances.” It is the words of the late Jean-Marie Le Pen, which were read in 1957 in the newspaper Le Monde. It confirmed its position on 9 November 1962, that is, Algeria regained independence and showed itself very soon: “I have nothing to store. I tortured him because he had to do so. If, from one moment to the next, they bring me some twenty freshly guarded bombs that could be shattered and they don’t want to talk, then extraordinary roads have to be used.” The historic leader of the National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, died on 7 January this year. With the same political project in hand, he is the father of Marin, too close to the presidency of the French State.

Testimonies, archives and journalistic publications, Le Pen's torture tests in the Algerian War (1954-1962) are not scarce. The most significant contributions of this investigative journalism are due to the journalist Florence Beaugé, who has had to defend through the courts and who has been denounced by Le Pen. But the judges have made this clear all the time: he has “particularly serious and elaborate” investigations, and the “coherence” and “credibility” of Le Pen’s torture testimonies cannot be denied.

The stab of photography that illustrates this article is a material proof that History has left us: J.M. Le Pen, 1st R.E.P sculpted in his entourage – Jean-Marie Le Pen, Away 1. The Paraxutista Regiment is one of the weapons that would be built between 1933 and 1942 for the Hitler Youth. It was discovered on 3 March 1957 by Mohamed Moulay, twelve years old, and after holding him almost in his life, on 4 May 2002 he brought for the first time to his extreme right – Jean-Marie Le Pen himself – to his head on the eve of the second round of the French presidency: “A man with his hands covered with blood is about to enter the Elysée, the situation is serious. […] We do not expect advertising or money. I have long been away from the Algerian war, but I know that in Algeria we are also terrified by what is happening in France.”

On the night of 1957, a patrol of some twenty soldiers entered his house to torture his father, a member of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN). On the blackest page of that war, known as the Battle of Algiers, the French Army carried out “domestic torture”, that is, tortured in the same place without leaving the house. In front of his wife and six children, Ahmed Moulay, 42, a native of Algeria, was tortured. Torture to death. Le Pen, who sent the patrol, would forget his stab in the house. They would come the next day and lunch to find the weapon that would inspect them all over the house, but the child kept it and kept the stab in secret, not knowing too much why. 40 years later I would speak again to delegate to Florence Beaugé, journalist for Le Monde. One of the major weapons the journalist would have later to prove Le Pen's torture was J.M. Le Pen, 1st R.E.P Punch with recording. The day after his father's death, Mohamed kept the gun and entered the jungle, reportedly becoming the youngest striker for Algeria's independence.

Let us not forget that from this history comes the National Front, a party created in 1972 by nostalgic Algerian colonized and collaborative Nazi. Precisely because his daughter, Marine, rechristened the party in 2018 under the name of National Union, with the intention of separating herself from the burden of the past and smoothing her image. Jean-Marie was the first party president (1972-2011), followed by Marine (2011-2021) and Jordan Bardella.

These are dozens of testimonies, because Le Pen tortured dozens of Algerians. These include those of the independentists Mohamed and Dahmane: “They took the slaughter off me and tied us to the somier. They joined the electricity. Jean-Marie Le Pen moved the switch. Jean-Marie Le Pen was the head of the torturers.” Le Pen et la torture, by historian Fabrice Riceputi, many others of this kind are received. Alger 1957, l’histoire contre l’oubli (Le Pen and torture. Aljer 1957, history against oblivion) and Torturés par Le Pen (tortured by Le Pen) by historian and journalist Hamid Bousselham.

Post-colonial aphasia

Riceputi uses the term “post-colonial aphasia” and tells him about the torture of war in Algeria that are not enough. What is more, it regrets that there is also a negationist movement in the French State, obviously on the part of the supporters of French Algeria, but beyond that, also on the part of a wider population.

These torturers are protected by the Amnesty Laws of the Evian Convention of 1962, which provides for the independence of Algeria. The historian says: “Le Pen and other war criminals in Algeria, including Maurice Papon, have been supported by the Amnesty Laws and have been able to accuse all defamation opponents. They have deduced silence and amnesia.” Indeed, amnesty covers all violations by the French army. Despite assuming his torturing past, Le Pen was able to sleep peacefully.

250,000 Algerians died in that war and another two million were imprisoned in controlled camps. French soldiers systematically tortured hundreds of thousands, according to the famous historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet. It was also recognised in 2000 by the prestigious general Jacques Massu: “Torture should have been punished, but it was protected, even order.”