Where is the relationship between Algeria and France going? We will undoubtedly see more clearly at the end of the meeting announced for “the coming days” between President Emmanuel Macron and “the ministers concerned”.
A meeting whose purpose goes from one thing to its opposite, depending on the party speaking about it, which illustrates all the cacophony currently reigning at the top of the French State in relation to the management of this unprecedented crisis. with Algeria.
The meeting was announced on Wednesday January 15 by two ministers who spoke on the subject before the National Assembly, that of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, and his colleague of the Interior Bruno Retailleau.
He brandished the meeting as a threat, as he usually does when it comes to Algeria, promising that “all measures must be put on the table, individual and more general measures” .
The next day, Thursday January 16, Barrot corrected on RTL that the meeting around Macron is expected to “define the follow-up to be given, the measures to be taken to restore the essential cooperation between our two countries”.
Bruno Retailleau, the supporter of the hard line
As described by the newspaper Le Monde, there is currently “a certain cacophony over Algeria” within the French Executive. The positions of each party are determined by domestic political agendas.
Bruno Retailleau is in the logic of outbidding the far-right and targets a well-defined electorate, who does not rule out running in the 2027 presidential election, which could occur sooner.
Without even this deadline, Bruno Retailleau is consistent with the line he has defended for several years, made up of a firm stance against immigration, particularly Algerian, and a dogmatic opposition to any “repentance” on memory. of colonization.
Bruno Retailleau is one of the first critics of the 1968 immigration agreement. Since his appointment as Minister of the Interior last September, he has repeatedly promised a “showdown” with Algeria over the question of consular passes.
After the outbreak of the Sansal affair and those of the “influencers”, Retailleau is one of those who evokes visas or even “development aid” as levers to be used against Algiers.
Darmanin: a different approach to the France – Algeria crisis
To a lesser degree, Gerald Darmaninthe former Minister of the Interior who became Minister of Justice, also seems to be pushing for measures that could worsen the crisis.
-Sunday January 12, on LCI, he pleaded only for the imposition of visas on holders of Algerian diplomatic passports, without the other measures demanded by the far right and the hard right.
Darmanin who has Algerian origins by his grandfather, felt that the restriction on visas which would affect all Algerians would not be effective.
As proof, it was he himself who tested this measure in September 2021, when Paris decided to reduce by 50% the number of visas granted to nationals of three Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia), to force their governments to issue more consular passes, without tangible results. He himself recognized it afterwards.
Gérald Darmanin did not support the proposal of the far right and Retailleau to repeal the 1968 agreement on immigration which he considers “obsolete”.
Darmanin's attitude is not devoid of political calculation, with the votes of the hard right in his sights, without alienating the Franco-Algerian electorate.
Faced with these two ministers, Jean-Noël Barrot embodies another path, that of diplomacy, even appeasement. He first had to put Bruno Retailleau and Gérald Darmanin in their place by indicating in an interview with the Brut platform that it is at the “Quai d'Orsay, under the authority of the President of the Republic, that policy is forged foreign to France”.
Barrot, an approach opposed to Retailleau and Darmanin
Last Thursday, Barrot developed a speech at odds with the government's warmongers. Saying he was ready to travel to Algiers to discuss all questions, the head of French diplomacy refused, on RTL, to use the word “crisis” for what is happening between Algiers and Paris, preferring to mention “difficulties”.
Jean-Noël Barrot gave a diplomatic speech, estimating that “the level of tension is not up to the level of friendship and the links which must be those which bring France and Algeria together”, and insisting on the fact that “neither Algeria nor France has any interest in a crisis situation developing”.
“We are two neighboring countries, two large countries in the Mediterranean, we have an interest in ironing out the difficulties,” he summarized.
Emmanuel Macron will have to arbitrate these two opposing approaches within the government which, in reality, embody the major trends within the political class, and even society. The announced meeting will be decisive for the immediate future of the France – Algeria relationship.
