Emmanuel Macron spoke for the first time this Monday, January 6, on the Boualem Sansal affair, arrested and imprisoned in Algeria for more than a month and a half.
The French president's first reaction to this affair, which further poisons the relationship between the two countries, is a violent attack against Algeria. The crisis between the two countries is more than ever likely to get worse and last longer.
Before the French ambassadors abroad, gathered this Monday, January 6 at the Élysée, Emmanuel Macron estimated that Algeria “dishonored“by keeping the writer in detention and preventing him”to take care of oneself“.
“The Algeria that we love so much and with which we share so many children and so many stories is entering into a story that dishonors it, preventing a seriously ill man from getting treatment. It's not up to what it is” he said.
Emmanuel Macron also launched a direct appeal to the Algerian government to release the writer.
“And we who love the Algerian people and their history, I urge their government to release Boualem Sansal“, he added in comments reported by several French media, including AFP and Le Monde.
The French authorities seem to have broken with the strategy of caution adopted until now with regard to this affair.
Boualem Sansal, 75 years old and naturalized French in 2024, was arrested at Algiers airport on November 16, a few weeks after having supported Morocco's expansionist aims on Algerian territory in a far-right French media outlet.
Prosecuted for endangering state security and the integrity of the national territory, he was placed in pre-trial detention.
If the French far-right has since led a vehement campaign to obtain his release, the French authorities have opted for restraint and “discretion“.
After the announcement of the writer's arrest, the French president's entourage simply informed AFP on November 21 that Emmanuel Macron was “very concerned“by his”disappearance” and that ” State services are mobilized to clarify his situation« .
Algeria – France: Macron takes the risk of worsening the crisis
“Efficiency requires discretion (…) What is important is not to speak out, but to obtain results“, declared Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau on November 26 to explain the relative silence of the French government.
However, he gradually broke with this strategy of discretion. On December 18, the same Retailleau threatened to “deploy a certain number of measures” against Algeria, without specifying which ones, if Boualem Sansal is not released.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot had already judged, on November 27, “baseless is simply unacceptable“detention”by a French writer“.
Barrot returned to the charge on Sunday January 5, declaring on RTL that “France is very attached to freedom of expression, freedom of opinion and considers that the reasons which may have led the Algerian authorities to incarcerate him are not valid« .
This Monday, it is the French president himself who gives a very harsh speech and which is not likely to ease the strong tensions between the two countries.
Algeria has been without an ambassador in France since the decision taken by Emmanuel Macron at the end of last July to recognize the “Moroccan sovereignty” on Western Sahara.
The Sansal affair further complicated the crisis, followed by revelations made in December by a former terrorist about the French services' attempt to enlist him to create terrorist cells in Algeria. Because of this latest affair, the French ambassador to Algeria, Stéphane Romatet, was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in mid-December.
Emmanuel Macron's new words may not help anything. During the fall of 2021, the two countries went through a serious crisis because of comments made by the French president on Algeria, its leaders and its history.
