The monarchical regime of Rabat receives another float on the head. One of its most active lobbyists in France and Europe has been indicted for corruption. The former Minister of Justice of Nicolas Sarkozy is suspected of having received suspicious funds through the Dutch structure of the French car manufacturer Renault.
In November 2020, the former CEO of the diamond brand confirmed the involvement of MEP Rachida Dati in the implementation of the diamond brand in Algeria in 2014. Interviewed by a French channel at Lebanon, his country of origin where he took refuge fleeing the Japanese justice, Carlos Ghosn had affirmed that the unsuccessful candidate for mayor of Paris was indeed paid to help the firm to settle “in North Africa”, without going into detail and almost dodging the question. By “North Africa”, we must understand Algeria, since the Renault plant had already existed for many years in Morocco.
The Renault-Algeria case was not treated on an equal footing in Algeria where industrialists are judged in the affair of automobile assembly factories decried by the new authorities and qualified as “deception”. However, the French brand does not differ in any way from the brands targeted by the courts in terms of integration, which is almost zero.
The Renault factory in Oued Tlilet, in the west of the country, was inaugurated by former Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal, who is currently in prison. The Renault-Algeria affair had caused much ink to flow in its time already, well before the trials which have spared it to this day. Many sources had reported “undue advantages” granted to the French car manufacturer to the detriment of the German firm Volkswagen, among others. Renault was given a head start, as was the case with the Egyptian operator Orascom whose boss, the Egyptian Naguib Sawiris, ended up dragging the Algerian state before international courts after having greatly benefited from his monopoly and its dominant position to the detriment of the incumbent national operator.
In February 2019, sources revealed an astronomical remuneration – we spoke at the time of 600,000 euros, the sum now increases to 900,000 euros – touched by the lobbyist Rachida Dati who had visited Algeria in December 2010. Three months later, that is to say on March 20, 2011, the general manager of Renault-Algeria, Stéphane Galoustian, announced that “the negotiations with the Algerian authorities for the establishment in Algeria of a factory to manufacture vehicles of its group continue”. His visit had been preceded, a few months earlier, by that of Jean-Pierre Raffarin, special envoy of Nicolas Sarkozy, with whom the Minister of Industry, Mohamed Benmeradi, was leading the discussions at the time.
Now cited in the case of the CEO of the French brand, the Franco-Lebanese Carlos Ghosn, Rachida Dati had tried to justify this sidereal bonus by claiming that she was acting as a lawyer on behalf of the group. An assertion that already tended to confirm its role of intermediary on behalf of this automobile firm which will be the very first to set up its factory in Algeria before competing brands, South Korean and German in particular, set up in turn afterward. laborious talks with the very controversial Abdeslam Bouchouareb.
Voices were raised at the time to denounce the insignificant volume of vehicles produced in Algeria by Renault, compared to the gigantic investments made by the French manufacturer in neighboring Morocco, despite the size of the Algerian market being much larger. Others outright denounced favoritism granted to the French to the detriment of other nationalities who, however, had expressed their wish to build assembly factories in Algeria, by promising a much larger production and even considering exporting to Africa from the early years.
According to indiscretions, the arrogant CEO of Renault prided himself in his speeches, and during his meetings about Algeria, that the brand he headed would establish itself in our country “when [he will have] decided” and “under [its] conditions.”
