PARIS – Emmanuel Macron asked the government to act “with more firmness and determination” with regard to Algeria, taking note of the inflexibility of the Algerian authorities on migratory issues and on the detention of two French nationals that France arbitrary judge.
Paris and Algiers have been entangled for more than a year in an unprecedented diplomatic crisis which has resulted in expulsions of civil servants on both sides, the recall of the ambassadors of the two countries and restrictions on the carriers of diplomatic visas.
Another consequence: the cessation of the cooperation of the Algerian consulates present in France with the services of the French State in matters of readmission of Algerians deemed dangerous, however under an obligation to leave the territory.
The fear of the French government is to have to release Algerian nationals currently detained in detention centers for lack of being able to keep them in these centers indefinitely.
“France must be strong and be respected,” says the French head of state in a letter to his Prime Minister, François Bayrou, published by the daily Le Figaro.
“She can only obtain her from her partners if herself shows them the respect she demands from them. This basic rule applies to Algeria too, ”he still writes.
Among the measures requested from the government, the Head of State calls for “formally” suspending the 2013 agreement with Algiers “concerning visa exemptions on official and diplomatic passports”.
A decision which acts a situation of fact: the Minister of French Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, announced on May 14 “the dismissal to Algeria of all the holding agents of diplomatic passports who would not currently have a visa”. France then reacted to an “unjustified and unjustifiable” decision of Algiers to expel French officials, he said.
Emmanuel Macron also asks the government to “immediately” use a provision of the immigration law of 2024, the “Visa-Réadmission lever (LVR)”, which “allows you to refuse short stay visas for service and diplomatic passport and diplomatic holders, as are long-stay visas for all types of applicants”.
To prevent Algerian diplomats from being able to come to France via a third country, France will ask its partners Schengen to cooperate.
The President also asks his Prime Minister “to instruct the Minister of the Interior”, Bruno Retailleau, holding a hard line towards Algiers, “to find the ways and means of useful cooperation with his Algerian counterpart” as quickly as possible. He “also hopes that, faced with the delinquency of Algerian individuals in an irregular situation, the Minister of the Interior and his services act without rest and without respite”.
Communication channels
In addition to the migratory question, Emmanuel Macron motivates the tour of the screw by the situation of the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, sentenced to 5 years in prison in particular for “attack on national unity”, and the French journalist Christophe Gleizes, sentenced to seven years in prison in Algeria for “apology of terrorism”.
Paris arbitrary judges their convictions and requests their release.
For Boualem Sansal, octogenarian and sick, at the Elysée, we still hoped in July that the essayist could benefit from a humanitarian gesture, which would have made it possible to appease diplomatic tensions. In vain.
As of July 23, the French Minister of the Interior indicated that France was “by train” to restrict the conditions of movement in France of a “certain number of Algerian dignitaries” after the refusal of Algiers to resume 120 nationals under the obligation to leave French territory (OQTF).
Aiming President Emmanuel Macron, he also considered that “the diplomacy of good feelings has (vait) failed” and claimed a change in tone towards Algiers.
Despite the requested firmness, the President of the Republic promises that his “objective remains to find effective and ambitious relations with Algeria”.
In Paris, it is estimated that the communication channels are not completely broken but we expect a gesture from Algiers.
Baptiste PACE et Delphine TOUITOU
© Agence France-Presse
