The former French ambassador to Algeria Xavier Driencourt returned to “the lasting and very strong deterioration of the Franco-Algerian relationship”. At the microphone of Europe 1 weekend morning, he explains what he believes was the event that tipped the situation into an “escalation” of tensions.
The observation is clear for Xavier Driencourt, former French ambassador to Algeria: “We are in a lasting and very strong deterioration of the Franco-Algerian relationship.” And the examples of this tension, this “escalation” between Paris and Algiers, are legion. The latest being the latter’s refusal to welcome on its soil an Algerian influencer expelled by Paris when there was “no legal reason” not to accept him, recalls on the microphone ofEurope 1 matin week-end the former ambassador.
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-Recognition of the “Moroccanness” of Western Sahara
But how did we arrive at this decision described as “humiliation” by the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau? For Xavier Driencourt, “the tipping point was the letter of July 30, 2024, in which the President of the Republic recognized the ‘Moroccan nature’ of Western Sahara.” It is therefore the position taken by Paris on this very sensitive issue between Morocco and Algeria, which would have triggered the ire of Algiers. “There has been no Algerian ambassador in Paris since July 30,” recalls Xavier Driencourt to support his point.
And added: “There was then a fairly long sequence of Macron in Rabat [le président y a renouvelé ses propos sur le Sahara occidental, ndlr]the awarding of the Goncourt Prize to Kamel Daoud seen from Algiers as an element of an anti-Algerian plot [l’écrivain étant critique envers le régime, ndlr]and the arrest of Boualem Sansal.” Without forgetting the recent sequence of Algerian influencers.
