the French ambassador was summoned for “aggressive maneuvers”, reports the Algerian press

The Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the French ambassador to Algiers last week to address “a severe warning” in Paris, accused of having led “aggressive operations and maneuvers” pour “destabilize” the country, several newspapers reported on Sunday, December 15.

The ambassador, Stéphane Romatet, was seen “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. 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, according to this newspaper, 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”.

Growing tensions between Algiers and Paris

At the convocation of M. Romatet “sounds like a severe warning, which comes the day after serious revelations on the involvement (of the) DGSE, in a recruitment campaign of former terrorists in Algeria for the purposes of destabilization” of the country, according to El Moudjahid. National television and the public 24-hour news channel AL24 News recently broadcast a documentary which claimed that a “Machiavellian plan” had been “brilliantly foiled by the Algerian security services”recalls the newspaper.

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 is 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 the institutions Algerian »according to this newspaper.

This new episode of tensions between Algiers and Paris occurs while the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal has been in detention for almost a month in Algeria, notably for “attack on territorial integrity”. His arrest on November 16 in Algiers could be due to his statements on a French media outlet known for the far-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.