Adopting a balancing act between Algiers and Rabat, Paris tries to maintain privileged relations with one without upsetting the other. But the French authorities do not always succeed, especially when they touch on the very problematic subject of the Sahara as is currently the case. Analysis of this puzzle with experts.
“Colonial France worked to spread illiteracy in Algeria.”Reported by the Algerian press, this shocking statement by Abdelmajid Chikhi, advisor in charge of memorial issues to President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, is enough in itself to show that the traditionally difficult relations between Algeria and France are currently experiencing a violent storm.
Castigating “the era of plunder” by citing “historians” without naming them, the one who is the Algerian alter ego of the French historian Benjamin Stora in the work of memorial reconciliation engaged on both sides of the Mediterranean, went even further in its spades, April 16, on the occasion of a “Knowledge Day” organized at the archives center of Algiers. By accusing France of having “eliminated the people who read and wrote in Algeria”, he especially rekindled the embers of an already fiery quarrel between Algiers and Paris.
Because in recent weeks, Franco-Algerian diplomatic relations have deteriorated more and more, visibly. The points of tension between the two countries accumulate to the point of endangering the fragile rapprochement outlined by President Emmanuel Macron for two years with his Algerian counterpart.
First, French Prime Minister Jean Castex canceled his trip at the last minute, which was scheduled for Sunday, April 11 in the country, on the occasion of the 5th Franco-Algerian High-Level Interministerial Committee (CIHN). A kind of mini-summit between Algerian and French ministers, initiated in 2012 by François Hollande to support bilateral cooperation. If this turnaround was officially justified by the health crisis on the side of Matignon, on the spot, it was experienced as a provocation for the Algerian power, affirms at the microphone of Kader Abderrahim, specialist of the Maghreb and director of research at the Institute of Foresight and Security in Europe (IPSE).
The Antenna of Discord
According to this author of the work “Geopolitics of Algeria” (Editions. Bibliomonde, 2020), this postponement was certainly decided at the request of Algiers partly on the grounds that the French delegation was not sufficiently supplied, as it was reported in the media. But behind the scenes, according to him, “this change of tone occurred mainly in reaction to the very recent opening of a branch of La République en Marche (LREM) in the city of Dakhla, in the middle of the Sahara”. Algeria, a historic ally of the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario front, considers this territory as colonized by Morocco.
“From an analytical point of view, the announcement of the opening of this branch by the spokesperson for the LREM group in the National Assembly was very clumsy. To do so the day before Jean Castex’s visit to Algiers when we know the susceptibility of the Algerian authorities on the Sahara issue was particularly awkward. These are things that we do but do not proclaim in the gallery of the Assembly. There was therefore a double clumsiness on the part of the presidential party. First, on the level of internal politics and at the same time on the diplomatic level”, underlines Kader Abderrahim.
“The Algerian rumble is all the stronger as the opening of the party’s branch in Dakhla was seen in the Cherifian kingdom as a first step towards the French recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara”, he continues. A red line for Algiers, which actively fights against this recognition, an old subject of contention between the two neighboring countries.
At the heart of this conflict, the Polisario quickly reacted to this announcement. In a statement published by APS, the Algerian press agency, the independence movement estimated that the creation of an LREM committee constitutes “a flagrant violation of the international status” of the Sahara.
The wind of anger thus raised went to blow on the benches of the hemicycle in France. Communist deputy Jean-Paul Lecoq described Tuesday, April 13 as “shameful” the creation of this section of The Republic on the march in the Sahara, describing to the National Assembly a “French political permanence in the heart of a non-autonomous territory”, while criticizing the “blind support” of Paris in Rabat.
In response to these criticisms, the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, said he “regretted” the initiative taken “locally” by LREM in Dakhla. “It does not change the position of France on this highly sensitive issue,” he assured French elected officials. And the same official added: “We are on this basis with Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, in favor of a just, lasting and mutually acceptable solution which respects all the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. The Moroccan autonomy plan is a basis for serious and credible discussion that must be taken into account ”.
“Pussyfoot”
Commenting on this reaction, Pierre Vermeren, a French historian specializing in the Maghreb, believes that “that certainly did not have to fix things”. Indeed, by trying to calm people down, the Secretary of State for European Affairs has instead put on the agenda another stumbling block that aggravates relations between France and Algeria, that of renewal by Paris for its support for the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara. Which plan stipulates that the Moroccan state “preserves its territorial unity” while transferring “part of its competencies to the Sahrawi population, who can manage themselves democratically”.
As a reminder, the Saharawi independence movement, supported by Algeria, is calling for a self-determination referendum.
“Algerian political figures do not appreciate this French support for Morocco in the Sahara issue at all. They even take a very negative view that France has a privileged relationship with Morocco. Because any rapprochement between Paris and Rabat is perceived in Algiers as being able to trigger a change in the French position on the Sahrawi issue and vice versa, Morocco also has this same perception, even if it does not react as epidermically as Algiers. The slightest gesture is scrutinized by the two enemy brothers as a sign of France’s diplomatic orientation and can lead to a diplomatic crisis, ”confirms Algerian policy specialist Kader Abderrahim.
Caught between the hammer of shady Algeria and the anvil of picky Morocco, Paris is trying to spare the goat and the cabbage by trying not to anger Algiers without irritating Rabat, support Sputnik’s interlocutors.
“France approaches this rivalry between the two enemy Maghrebian brothers as if it was walking on eggshells, especially when it comes to the Sahara issue, but makes a few failures as is currently the case. In short, when one of the two relations heats up, the other cools down almost automatically, ”notes Kader Abderrahim who is also the author of“ Géopolitique du Maroc ”(Éditions Bibliomonde, 2018).
This incessant balancing act is becoming more and more difficult for Paris to hold, especially after the strong tensions between the two Maghreb enemy brothers around the endless question of the Sahara have given way, quite recently, to frank hostility, affirm the two Maghreb experts.
Perilous big gap
The research director at the Institute for Foresight and Security in Europe (IPSE) even assures us that the balancing act that France adopts between Morocco and Algeria has reached its limits: “There, we reach the maximum possible in this tug-of-war, Paris is no longer in diplomacy, it is in gymnastics where it makes the splits permanently. So there, inevitably, at this stage, a muscular accident is likely to occur at any time”, schematizes Abderrahim.
“As long as France does not manage to define a clear policy with its Maghreb partners, the long-term crisis will continue. France accepts from these two countries what it would not tolerate from any other state in the world. It is a vicious circle from which it is difficult to get out since Paris is paralyzed in the face of this situation”, abounds in turn Pierre Vermeren, author of the works“ Maghreb: democracy impossible? ” (Éditions Fayard, 2005) and “Le Choc des décolonisations. From the Algerian War to the Arab Spring ”(Éditions Odile Jacob, 2015).
On the possible prospects of the interminable crisis in Franco-Algerian relations, the two experts are rather optimistic in the short term. “What we can already predict is that the two countries will necessarily reconcile, and end up being very positive towards each other. And then, as usual, there will be a new muddle because what characterizes the Franco-Algerian bilateral relationship is the chronic instability that complicates it. Relations between Algeria and France are certainly very tumultuous, but the two countries are like an old couple. They argue all the time, but can’t seem to separate. Sometimes they turn their backs, sometimes they are desperately looking for each other, ” summarizes the political scientist and lecturer at Sciences Po, Kader Abedderahim.
A harbinger of this reconciliation, the French authorities are already trying to calm things down. “There are sometimes excessive words in Franco-Algerian relations. We must appease all this, ” explained Clément Beaune, on April 11, on the set of the Grand Jury RTL / Le Figaro / LCI by answering a question on the shocking statement of the Algerian Minister of Labor. Hachemi Djaâboub had accused France of “traditional and eternal enemy”, at the very moment when the visit of the French Prime Minister was postponed sine die.
Asked, too, on this subject by the daily Le Figaro in its edition of April 19, Emmanuel Macron deemed “unacceptable” Djaâboub’s comment. At the same time, the French President also underlined a desire for memorial reconciliation “very widely shared” between Algiers and Paris, despite “some resistance” on the Algerian side.
As for the evolution of this situation in the long term, Sputnik’s interlocutors have no certainty.
“Everything will depend on the future President who will be elected in France in 2022. Then, we will have to wait for the change of generation at the head of the Algerian state, which can also change the situation,” concludes analyst Pierre Vermeren.
