New tensions between France and Algeria. The Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the French ambassador to Algiers to address “a severe warning“in Paris, accused of having led”aggressive operations and maneuvers” pour “destabilize” the country, several Algerian newspapers reported on Sunday, December 15.
Ambassador Stéphane Romatet thus saw himself “signify the firm disapproval of the highest Algerian authorities in the face of the numerous French provocations and hostile acts towards Algeria“, writes the government daily El Moudjahid, who considers that this summons “sounds like a severe warning, which comes the day after serious revelations about the involvement [de la] DGSE, in a recruitment campaign of former terrorists in Algeria for destabilization purposes” of the country.
It's actually a documentary broadcast on national television EPTV and on the public continuous news channel AL24 News, on December 7, which ignited the powder. This broadcast claimed that a “Machiavellian plan“from the DGSE,”brilliantly foiled by the Algerian security services“, consisted of recruiting former terrorists.
According to Algerian Eveningthe Algerian side has “required orally to clearly identify the origin of these malicious acts, the French DGSE (Directorate General for External Security)“. The intelligence agency would, according to this newspaper, have carried out a number of”aggressive operations and maneuvers targeting institutions of the Algerian Republic with the obvious aim of destabilizing them and seriously harming our country“.
The French ambassador was also accused of “facts that are just as serious, slippages which are no longer just an unfriendly act, but a notorious desire to greatly harm Algeria“, assure Algerian Evening. It's about “meetings organized within the walls of several representations flying the French flag in Algeria and recognized as such, bringing together, around French diplomats of various ranks, mainly consular agents reporting to the DGSE, people known for their declared and permanent hostility towards Algerian institutions“, according to this newspaper.
Accusations”unfounded and fanciful” denounced the resigning Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, on France Inter on Sunday.
This new episode of tensions between Algiers and Paris occurs while Boualem Sansal has been in detention for almost a month in Algeria, notably for “violation of territorial integrity“. Arrested on November 16 in Algiers, the Franco-Algerian writer was questioned after statements on a French media outlet known for the extreme right where he took up Morocco's thesis according to which its territory had been truncated in favor of Algeria under French colonization.
Franco-Algerian relations were already in turmoil, with Algeria having withdrawn its ambassador to France this summer after Paris' announcement of strong support for a plan under Moroccan sovereignty for the autonomy of Western Sahara, a claimed territory. by the separatists of the Polisario Front supported by Algiers. The year 2022 therefore seems a long way away, when the two countries had signed, with honors, a declaration for a renewed partnership.