During a televised interview with the press, the Algerian head of state specified that “things settled down” after the October crisis.
“Things are starting to take a new turn” between Algeria and France, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said on Tuesday evening February 15 during a television interview with the Algerian press. “I won’t say more. They are in an election period. But in general, things have settled down”, replied Mr. Tebboune to a question on Algerian-French relations which have gone through a serious crisis since October.
The last meeting between the Secretaries-General of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the two countries was “very positive”, estimated the Algerian Head of State. “With the latest decision taken by the French President [Emmanuel Macron] on the Charonne metro where Algerians died because of the repression of the scoundrel [Maurice] Papon [prefect of police of Paris at the time], things are starting to take a new turn,” added Mr. Tebboune.
On February 8, Mr. Macron paid tribute to the victims who died at the Charonne metro station in Paris during a demonstration for peace in Algeria on February 8, 1962, which was violently repressed by the French police.
“An excellent personal relationship”
In early February, the head of Algerian diplomacy Ramtane Lamamra told French media that relations between the two countries are “in an ascending phase”. Mr. Lamamra assured that the Algerian and French presidents had “an excellent personal relationship”, “cordial and trusting”.
Four months earlier, Mr. Macron had triggered the anger of Algiers after remarks that the French daily Le Monde had lent him on October 2, accusing the Algerian “politico-military” system of maintaining a “memorial rent”. According to the daily, he had questioned the existence of an Algerian nation before French colonization.
As a sign of protest, Algeria had recalled its ambassador to France and prohibited the overflight of its territory to French military planes serving the Sahel, where the troops of the anti-jihadist operation “Barkhane” are deployed. The ambassador returned to France on January 6.
In his interview, Mr. Tebboune also criticized Morocco which “does not stop its propaganda against Algeria with the support of Israel”. ” Nothing has changed. On the contrary, things have become more complicated”, declared the Algerian head of state about relations with the Moroccan neighbor, continuing to exclude any mediation.
