The measures requested Wednesday by the head of state in the government, “we will apply them not in the minds of a perpetual confrontation but in the spirit of one day finding relations that are balanced and fair,” said François Bayrou, after the tightening of Emmanuel Macron’s position with regard to Algiers.
In a letter from Emmanuel Macron addressed to his Prime Minister, quoted by Le Figaro, the President of the Republic invokes the “reserved fate” to Boualem Sansal and Christophe Gleizes to ask the French government “additional decisions” in the face of “growing difficulties” with the Algiers regime.
Among the measures mentioned in this document, the Head of State calls for “formally” suspending the 2013 agreement with Algiers “concerning visa exemptions on official and diplomatic passports”.
France exempts “from its responsibilities” according to Algiers
Faced with this declaration Algeria reacted by accusing, this Thursday, France of exempting “its responsibilities” in the bilateral crisis and announced, in a statement of its diplomacy, the denunciation of the agreement on the exemption of visas for the benefit of holders of diplomatic passports and service of which Paris announced the suspension the day before.
According to Algeria, this letter from the French president “exempts France from all of its responsibilities and makes all the wrongs bring to the Algerian part. Nothing is further from truth and reality, ”according to the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Regarding the visa exemption agreement, Algiers recalls that “it is France, and it alone, which was at the origin of such a request. By deciding the suspension of this agreement, France offers Algeria the appropriate opportunity to announce, on the other hand, the pure and simple denunciation of this same agreement ”.
