Relations between Algeria and France have deteriorated sharply for nearly two months, for several reasons, among which, the declarations of the French President, Emmanuel Macron, who had accused the Algerian “politico-military system” of maintaining a “Memorial rent” by serving its people an “official history” which “is not based on truths”.
The French president, whose remarks had been reported at the beginning of last October by the newspaper Le Monde, had also questioned the existence of the “Algerian nation” before French colonization, which triggered the anger of Algiers, who recalled its ambassador in Paris and prohibits the overflight of its territory to French military planes rallying the Sahel.
At the beginning of November, in an interview with the German weekly “Der Spiegel”, the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, declared that he will not take “the first step” to try to calm the tensions caused by the comments. Emmanuel Macron’s criticisms of the Algerian “nation”.
“I will not be the one who takes the first step”
“I have no regrets. Macron has reopened an old conflict in a completely unnecessary way, ”said President Tebboune. “If Zemmour (polemicist of the French extreme right, editor’s note) says something like that, whatever, nobody pays attention. But when a head of state declares that Algeria was not a separate nation, it is very serious, ”he said.
“I will not be the one who will take the first step”, declared the head of state. “Otherwise I will lose all the Algerians, it is not about me, but about a national problem”. “No Algerian would accept that I contact those who insulted us,” he explained.
“We do not touch the history of a people, and we do not insult the Algerians,” added President Tebboune. “Why did (Emmanuel Macron) say that? I think it was for strategic electoral reasons, ”he said. “It’s the same speech that the far-right journalist Éric Zemmour has been using for a long time: Algeria was not a nation, it was France that made it a nation,” he said. According to Mr. Tebboune, “with this declaration, Macron sided with those who justify colonization”.
Is there a prospect of an outcome with France? asks Spiegel? “No, if the French want to go to Mali or Niger now, they will just have to fly nine hours instead of four”, retorts Mr. Tebboune, assuring however that an “exception” would be made for “the rescue of people injured”. “But for everything else, we are no longer obliged to cooperate with each other, it may be over now,” he warns, accusing Mr. Macron of having “undermined the dignity of Algerians”.
Macron “regrets” the “misunderstandings” with Algeria
A few days later, the French president had “regretted” “the controversies and misunderstandings” with Algeria, and assured to have “the greatest respect for the Algerian nation” and “its history”. “The President of the Republic regrets the controversies and misunderstandings generated by the comments reported” and “he is strongly attached to the development of the relationship” between France and Algeria, said an Africa and Middle East adviser to the French president, during a press brief devoted to the conference on Libya organized on the 12th in Paris.
According to the same adviser, Emmanuel had also invited President Tebboune to take part in this conference. If the statements of the French president were welcomed by Algiers, President Tebboune did not go to Paris to participate in the conference on Libya. It was the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the National Community Abroad, Ramtane Lamamra, who represented him at this event.
Ramtane Lamamra had indicated that “the conditions are not met to participate personally in this conference, despite his attachment (President) to the active role of Algeria alongside the Libyan brothers as well as to the desired peaceful and democratic settlement of the Libyan question ”.
Paris offers an “ambitious partnership”
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, spoke again, this Friday, November 19, on the crisis between Algeria and France. In an interview published in the newspaper Le Monde, Jean-Yves Le Drian was questioned about the existence of the Algerian nation before French colonization. The French MFA, which did not respond directly, recalled that President Macron “has taken strong initiatives, particularly in the sensitive area of memory” and that Algeria and France have “ties anchored in the story. “
“We have ties that are rooted in history. We want the Franco-Algerian partnership to be ambitious,” he declared. “It is logical, when we know our history, that there are sometimes resurgences of wounds, but we must go beyond to find a relationship of trust,” he said.
“This is what we want, what the President of the Republic wants”, he said, adding that “there are sometimes misunderstandings, but that does not detract from the importance that we let us attach to the relations between our two countries”. “We must keep this link made of respect for sovereignties and a common desire to go beyond litigation to find a peaceful relationship,” said Le Drian.
Tuesday at the French National Assembly, Le Drian said that “efforts” have been “made” to “re-establish the conditions for a peaceful relationship with Algeria”.
