An Algerian influencer deported to Algeria for violent comments on social networks has been banned from entering the country by the Algerian authorities. Those around the French Interior Minister denounce “an incomprehensible gesture” on the part of Algiers.
An express round trip. Doualemn, an Algerian influencer arrested in Montpellier after calls for violence on social networks and then deported to Algeria on Thursday, was refused by the Algerian authorities. Put back on a plane to France, he was placed in an CRA, an administrative detention center, while awaiting possible further expulsion.
Officially, Algeria “banned him from territory”, but without giving any reason. On the French side, this ban is seen as a pretext: “It’s an incomprehensible and unfriendly gesture,” the entourage of French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau assures RMC.
Growing tensions between France and Algeria
Enough to fuel the standoff that has been playing out for several weeks, in a relationship that has become execrable between Paris and Algiers. Since first, Emmanuel Macron’s change of footing on the question of Western Sahara. France moved closer to Morocco which triggered an open crisis with Algeria.
There was then the arrest of the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, imprisoned in Algeria since mid-November, with serious concerns about his state of health: “Algeria is entering a history that dishonors it”, launched Emmanuel Macron on Monday, accusing Algiers of “preventing a seriously ill man from getting treatment”.
This is the level of tension in which this episode occurs, after several violent messages from Algerian influencers which have intensified in recent days on social networks. These messages provoked several arrests, the latest dating from this Thursday with the arrest of a Franco-Algerian, Sofia Benlemmane, placed in custody for “death threats and incitement to hatred”, after anti-French messages.
Towards a response from Bruno Retailleau?
“It is time for France to gain respect from Algeria, which for too long has been multiplying humiliations against France,” insists this Friday on RMC and BFMTV Jean-Philippe Tanguy, RN deputy for the Somme who calls for “retaliation “immediate” including the suspension of all visas, development aid and financial flows “if necessary”.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau should react this Friday as he is expected in Nantes in the morning, for a visit devoted precisely to the issue of visas.
Sébastien Krebs (with GD)
