While the “indigenous” representatives demand the association or independence, the Algerian status of September 20, 1947 keeps Algeria under the executive power of a government appointed in Paris. Then there are 922 000 “Europeans” in Algeria and 7 860 000 “Muslims”. In 1948, the Algerian governor instructed the administration to conduct a “good scrutiny”. “While the first round gave a glimpse of a victory of the MTLD (Messali Hadj), a major tampering operation totally denatured the elections in the second round. The completion of the polls, the preventive arrest of suspicious advisors and control on villages by the army led to the “election” of 41 administrative candidates (out of 60) (...) These practices exasperate the Muslims, but get the recognition of the French in Algeria. Convinced that the cleverness and strength could maintain the status quo, they did not make any concession”. This is the dark prophecy made up by Ferhat Abbas to the Marshal Juin: “Machineguns are the only solution”.