France-Algeria: autopsy of disillusionment

EIs this the beginning of a de-escalation between France and Algeria after the outbreak of animosity in recent weeks, the most virulent in two decades? Jean-Noël Barrot wants to believe it, without being entirely certain. “Neither France nor Algeria have any interest in lasting tension,” declared the French Minister of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday January 15 before the National Assembly, while deploring the recent “postures of hostility” of Algiers: refusal to readmit to its soil an Algerian influencer expelled on January 9 from France for violent remarks, arrest in mid-November of the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, etc.

Any prospect of appeasement, however, remains subordinate to the internal balances within the French executive, where a certain cacophony reigns over Algeria. Obviously, Mr. Barrot, who intends to restore the prerogatives of the Quai d'Orsay on this crucial foreign policy issue, does not share the approach of two other ministers, Bruno Retailleau for the interior and Gérald Darmanin for justice , supporters of reprisals on Algerian power. Far from “handle and board effects”said Mr. Barrot, Thursday on RTL, in an allusion to the maximalist remarks of his two colleagues, France has “interest in ironing out difficulties”.

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