Nothing is going well between Algiers and Paris since the two capitals entered a new phase of tensions, in mid-April. Two days after the declarations of diplomacy chief Jean-Noël Barrot indicating that the relationship was still “blocked”, the French government spokesperson confirmed the dead end. The only negotiations envisaged will focus on the “hardening” of the “graduated response” dear to the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau.
“At this stadium, the situation is blocked,” the French Minister of Foreign Affairs on RTL on Monday, May 5, imputing “the responsibility” to the Algerian authorities and explaining that the detention of the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal and the expulsion of 12 French consular agents “do not facilitate contact”. The French ambassador to Algeria, Stéphane Romatet, recalled in mid-April, is still in Paris, he said.
Algeria – France, the impasse
Remarks from Barrot, it emerged that France notably wants the return to their posts of the 12 French consular agents, but also “a humanitarian gesture” in favor of Boualem Sansal.
After eight months of crisis, Algiers and Paris undertook a warning process in early April, with the visit to Algeria of Jean-Noël Barrot. However, the rapprochement was quickly upset by the arrest and the imprisonment in France of an Algerian consular agent. Algiers retaliated by the expulsion of 12 agents among the employees of the embassy and the consulates of France placed under the direct authority of the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, appointed by the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs namely as the manager of this return to the square of the bilateral relationship.
Paris mentioned the graduated response vis-à-vis Algeria and “probably harden it”
Paris responded on April 16 with a similar measure, expelling 12 Algerian consular agents and recalling its ambassador to Algeria. These reciprocal measures have been qualified by unprecedented observers since the Evian agreements and the independence of Algeria in 1962.
These spinoffs of the crisis overshadowed, in French requirements, the pending files which were at the origin of the quarrel, such as the question of the rebounded ones of Algerian illegal immigrants in France.
This Wednesday, May 7, the French government spokesperson confirmed the blockage. “Indeed, the situation is blocked today with Algeria,” said Sophie Primas at a press conference after a meeting of the Council of Ministers. The manager has not reported initiatives or in progress which allow us to see a possible next exit from the crisis. On the contrary, she put forward almost explicitly the threat of going even further in the “graduated response” with regard to Algeria.
“And it was in this context (of the blockage, Editor’s note),” continued the spokesperson, that the Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, will re-engage together, a phase of consultation and negotiations to continue to apply this graduated response to Algeria and probably harden it. “We take up the discussion to know how we will speed up the graduation of the response,” insisted Sophie Primas.
The next stage of the “graduated response” could be the questioning of a bilateral agreement of 2013 with a reciprocal visa exemption for carriers of a diplomatic passport, said Bruno Retailleau on April 23 on BFMTV and RMC, the day after a meeting with the 12 agents expelled by Algeria, which he said that he had found “very shocked”.
