A man was arrested in Algiers on November 16 when he got off the plane. This man's name is Boualem Sansal. He is Algerian, he is French, he is above all universal. He is a novelist, he is an essayist, he is an artist, he is one of the greatest voices in French-speaking literature, translated throughout the world and whose talent is inseparable from immense modesty. This man is a bridge between the two shores of the Mediterranean, a lover of the French language, a tireless surveyor of French and Algerian societies of which he is one of the sons, a free and lucid conscience. It is this freedom and this lucidity that a State, via an arbitrary decision, has decided to imprison in contempt of the most basic human rights. France cannot fail to react: with determination, with strength and without trembling. For several days, the Algerian authorities have been engaged in an unprecedented defamation campaign against Boualem Sansal and his supporters.
For several days, the French authorities, rightly favoring discretion as well as the diplomatic route, have shown unequaled restraint while one of our compatriots is as much a victim of his free expression as of the tense context of French relations. -Algerians. Despite this caution, French government officials were not rewarded for the undeniable moderation they showed when this arrest was announced. Let's make no mistake; what is currently playing out is not yet another upheaval in the tumultuous, shady, complex relations between Paris and Algiers.
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It's a three-dimensional affair: moral, first of all, because not standing up to defend a writer thrown in prison amounts to accepting that a writer can still be the victim today of a “lettre de cachet”. » ; internal, because Sansal's jailers, excellent observers of French public life, understood that there was a way to activate levers to further divide French society; geopolitical finally, due to the difficulties inherent, among other things, to the relationship between Rabat and Algiers, and to developments in French diplomacy on the subject.
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However, we must respond to these three challenges without hesitation: a writer obviously has no place in prison when he is arrested because of his status as an intellectual; faced with the external and pernicious attempt to divide our social and political body, we must oppose full and complete unity around the founding and fundamental principle of freedom of expression and thought, which is not negotiable – it is the meaning of the broad and plural mobilization launched by the international support committee which is campaigning for the immediate and unconditional release of Sansal; finally, the sensitive equation of relations between Morocco and Algeria cannot in any way authorize what amounts to an unacceptable hostage-taking aimed at putting pressure on France.
His name is the symbol of resistance to cowardice
Beyond these moral, political and international questions, there is finally a man, whose name is the symbol of resistance to cowardice, an elderly man whose whole struggle is to speak his truth and to stand up straight, to enlighten his contemporaries without compromise on the dangers that await free societies, a man whose work testifies to courage, a alone man who, from the depths of his prison solitude, must confront a state machine whose aim is to grind it or use it as a bargaining chip. For all these reasons and many more, we must free Boualem Sansal, the voice of all men who refuse fear and resignation.
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Signatories
Eric Anceauprofessor of contemporary political history
Arnaud Benedettieditor-in-chief of the Political and Parliamentary Review
Florence Bergeaud-Blackeranthropologist
Olivier Dardhistorian, professor at Sorbonne-Université
Smaïl Djerbaljournalist
Xavier Driencourtformer French ambassador to Algeria
Amine Elbahilawyer
Olivia GregoireMember of Parliament for Paris
Emmanuelle HoffmannMember of Parliament for Paris
Guillaume Larrivéformer MP
Constance The GripMP for Hauts-de-Seine
Bartolomé Lenoirdeputy for Creuse
Noelle Lenoirlawyer, former minister responsible for European Affairs
Delphine LingemannMember of Parliament for Puy-de-Dôme
David Lisnardmayor of Cannes, president of the Association of Mayors of France
Frédéric Masqueliermayor of Saint-Raphaël, president of Estérel Côte d’Azur Agglomération
Paul Melunessayist and columnist
Nicolas MedzdorfMember of Parliament for New Caledonia
Maxime Micheletdeputy for Marne
Laura MillerMP for Marne
Thibault de Montbriallawyer
Celine Pinajournalist
Gilles Platretmayor of Chalon-sur-Saône
Charles RodwellMP for Yvelines
Stéphane Rozèspolitical scientist and essayist
Laetitia Saint-PaulMember of Parliament for Maine-et-Loire
Jean-Eric Schoettlformer secretary general of the Constitutional Council
Erik Tegnereditorial director of Frontières
William Thayjournalist
Annie VidalMember of Parliament for Seine-Maritime
Léa Wiazemskyactress and novelist
