According to indiscretions published by the French daily Le FigaroNicolas Lerner, head of the French foreign intelligence services (DGSE) made a lightning visit to Algiers on January 13 at the head of a large delegation.
According to confidences relayed, from Paris, by the journalist Abdou Semmar and which he says he got from Algerian sources close to decision-making circles, Nicolas Lerner would have spoken, during his short visit to Algeria, with his Algerian counterpart from the Directorate external intelligence, General Fethi Moussaoui, alias Sadek, the head of the Directorate of Documentation and External Security (DDSE).
This trip by the senior French security official to Algeria comes in the context of an unprecedented diplomatic crisis. Divergences of interests which are marked by a succession of controversies on questions of memory, economics and politics. Recurring accusations of French interference in Algerian internal affairs have fueled tensions which have risen to a crescendo since Emmanuel Macron’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
This same French foreign intelligence institution, the DGSE, was accused by Algeria of carrying out actions aimed at destabilizing the country. An accusation that my French Minister of Foreign Affairs dismissed out of hand in front of the press.
Dissensions between the two capitals suddenly exacerbated following an exchange of unfriendly remarks between the head of state Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Emmanuel Macron on the subject of the incarceration of the writer Boualem Sansal. Tebboune described prisoner and writer Boualem Sansal as a “traitor” and a “special envoy from France”. He even maintained that Boualem Sansal does not know his real father. Serious and hurtful remarks against a 75-year-old prisoner of conscience. So unable to defend himself.
The conflict further escalated after the affair of Algeria’s refusal to welcome on its soil the tiktoker “Boualem N” a national residing in France and who was the subject of an administrative expulsion order for an offense breach of public order (terrorism and calls for hatred and the murder of Algerian opponents of the Tebboune regime). Result: ministers, like Gérald Darmanin and Bruno Retailleau, have stepped up their proposals to “punish” Algeria.
Of course, if in Algeria the conservative and anti-French currents have reveled in this crisis, in France, the extreme right is working with approximations and lies to blow on the embers, not hesitating to designate the Algeria (and therefore the Algerians) as the supreme enemy of France.
A mission to defuse the crisis
It goes without saying that the head of the DGSE, Nicolas Lerner, was commissioned by the high authorities of his country to try to reconnect the broken threads between the two capitals.
By taking the initiative of sending the head of the DGSE to Algiers, Paris is clearly seeking to calm things down. Avoid a further escalation of the diplomatic conflict. This does not bode well for those who want to see this war of words end.
The stakes are indeed enormous for the two countries to afford the luxury of a lasting quarrel which could lead to the breakdown of bilateral relations.
Which would be damaging to their historical ties in the economic, commercial and political fields. And even on a human level due to the presence of an Algerian diaspora in France estimated at more than 5 million people.
Through the use of parallel diplomacy through the secret services, France clearly wants to clear the ground to give direct and “transparent” diplomacy a chance for a return to normal and peaceful relations.
A sign of goodwill which we do not know if it had positive echoes in Algiers. Even if a change of tone is noted in the media discourse and that of official political circles, it can be interpreted as the stirrings of a stated desire to move towards de-escalation.
In these environments, we tend to be more nuanced. The distinction is increasingly marked between official France and the far right, which does not stop itself from exploiting the crisis to prevent Emmanuel Macron from implementing his Algerian policy. Push him to review historical relations between the two countries.
In its dispatch last Tuesday, the APS seems to have added water to its gall against the Élysée. Its target: “The xenophobic, chauvinist and racist part of France (which) calls loud and clear for punitive measures against Algeria”. Also in the sights of the official agency are “those (the ministers of justice and the interior, editor’s note) who have appropriated the ideas (of the extreme right) within the French Government are competing in ingenuity in the proposal for sanctions (…) This part of France to which sovereign and independent Algeria has remained in the way (…).”
The same elements of language are found in the press release from the upper house of parliament.
However, the path to bring the views together will be arduous and long because the damage is significant.
Samia Naït Iqbal
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