Dominique de Villepin criticizes Bruno Retailleau's “one-upmanship” on Algeria and believes that these questions “can only be resolved through diplomacy”

Former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin criticized this Monday the “one-upmanship” of the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau on Algeria inviting him to let the diplomats act and not to give in to “the temptation to settle scores” car “crises are never resolved through escalation”. “There has been a misunderstanding since the departure of the Minister of the Interior who wants to resolve issues that can only be resolved through diplomacy”Villepin decided on France info. “It is never through escalation and one-upmanship that we resolve crises (…) Given the seriousness of things, today we should not have to indulge ourselves by settling scores”he said.

On Sunday, Bruno Retailleau repeated that France had been “humiliated” by Algeria when this country refused entry into its territory of an Algerian influencer expelled from France. “There is one feeling that we must be wary of in matters of diplomacy, and that is humiliation”replied the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, citing crises and wars triggered in history under this pretext. “We must not forget that between us and Algeria, there are millions of Algerians from France, millions of Franco-Algerians and more broadly millions of French people from the Maghreb who all see with great concern these fluctuations which affected Morocco yesterday and Algeria today”at-il having you.

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“There is only one path, it is that of respect”

Basically, Villepin did not say he was opposed to reviewing the 1968 Franco-Algerian agreement relating to the conditions of entry into France for Algerian nationals, as requested by several French officials. “But, if we want to discuss these agreements again, well let’s talk about it with the Algerians. Do we have to adopt a punitive stance? Let’s get out of this logic”he judged. “We have paid enough through history to learn that there is only one path, that of respect”he concluded.

The often checkered relations between France and Algeria have deteriorated since last summer with the announcement of Paris' support for the Moroccan autonomy plan for the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Several issues then continued to darken bilateral relations, including the incarceration since mid-November in Algeria of the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal.