Etat Pied-Noir

The Pied-Noir are a people of European-origin born in French-occupied North Africa and, in particular, Algeria. They left en masse as French citizens at the end of the Algerian war and settled mostly in the south of France. Although French, the Pieds-Noirs were largely descended from Spanish, Italian and Maltese settlers as well as French. They have nevertheless remained for the most part fiercely loyal to France throughout the history of French Algeria and its aftermath. There have, however, been occasional expressions of autonomism and even separatism, particularly around the fall of the Second Empire and again at the fall of French rule in Algeria.[1]

The Gouvernement Provisoire Pied-Noir en Exil was created on 1 October 2016 in Montpellier by a small group of veteran Pied-Noir activists in response to what they saw as marginalized by successive French governments.[2] A written constitution was formalised the following year in Nice. This document outlines the aims of peace and neutrality as well as the basis for Pied-Noir sovereignty as claimed in international law.[3] The GPPNE has expressed a desire for membership of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization[4] and even to acquire a territory in the Mediterranean region, although they have made no specific territorial claims.[5]

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