Already tense, relations between Paris and Algiers have become increasingly tense in recent weeks. And the question of the fate of the Algerian influencer “Doualemn” doesn’t help matters. Thursday, this 59-year-old man, arrested a few days earlier in Montpellier (Hérault), was “put on a plane” bound for Algiers, according to his lawyer Jean-Baptiste Mousset… before Algeria refused him and ‘territory inadmissibility.
The videographer was finally placed in the administrative detention center (CRA) of Mesnil-Amelot (Seine-et-Marne). This legal imbroglio revives the already existing tensions between France and Algeria and relaunches the debate on the question of the 1968 agreements. Friday, the president of the National Rally Jordan Bardella asked that they be “questioned”. But what do they contain?
Revised in 1985, 1994 and 2001, they were initially signed on December 27, 1968, while the two countries were cooperating within the framework of the independence obtained from Algeria in 1962 following the Evian Accords. These agreements relate to the movement, employment and stay of Algerian nationals and their families. They grant them a specific regime, different from that of other foreign nationals.
“The entry of Algerians into France is facilitated,” the Ministry of the Interior clearly indicates on its website. “Common law is not applied to them,” even specifies Me Mervé Erol, lawyer at the Paris Bar specializing in foreigners’ law. Concretely, Algerian nationals do not need a visa for a stay of more than three months to stay in France, but a “certificate of residence”. They are awarded for private, family, study or professional reasons. This certificate allows you to come and go freely between France and Algeria during its validity, which is at least one year.
“Algerian nationals can access more quickly than nationals of other states the issuance of a residence permit valid for 10 years,” adds Place Beauvau. They can request it after having spent three years on French soil, while common law provides for five years for other foreign nationals. “But they are losing on other points,” adds Me Mervé Erol, citing “disadvantageous” measures for Algerian students.
The challenge to these agreements is not new and there are new tensions around Algerian influencers and their calls for hatred in France. Former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe expressed his wish in June 2023 to renegotiate them. Last November, Bruno Retailleau criticized “an exorbitant right that nothing anymore justifies”, saying he was in favor of the “denunciation” of these “obsolete” agreements in the face of an “arrogant” Algeria.
Is their revocation really possible? “This is an agreement between the two countries, which means that if Algeria does not want to go back on it, then nothing will happen,” says Me Mervé Erol. “As long as there is no progress on diplomatic relations, nothing will change from a legal point of view. »
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