What is happening between France and Algeria?

Anti-French slogans were heard during the anti-regime Hirak demonstration on Friday 9 April. Recently, the crisis between Algiers and Paris has taken on unprecedented proportions that are surprising in their scale. The general tendency was towards appeasement and reconciliation.

The torch is burning again between Algeria and France. In the midst of a power crisis in Algiers, contested by an entrenched social and political movement, President Emmanuel Macron was keen to express his support for his Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune by giving credit to the post-Bouteflika period. A support so visible and so assumed that Macron attracted the wrath of the icons of the Hirak who reproached France for its complicity with the autocrats of Algiers, analyzes the political scientist Mustapha Tossa.

According to him, moreover, as a sign of goodwill, Emmanuel Macron has launched a process of reconciliation with Algeria led by the historian Benjamin Stora. A process that in no way claims to solve the problems with a magic wand, but which has the gift of opening up new areas of work. Everything was therefore going well between the two countries, in the name of the reason of State and their higher interests.

For political scientist Mustapha Tossa, until the sudden announcement of the postponement sine die of the visit of the French delegation led by Prime Minister Jean Castex. Thus, a gaping and unprecedented crisis was opened between Algiers and Paris with the fear of the worst. Several hypotheses were put forward to justify this cancellation and this sudden rise in tension between Algeria and France.

The first would be the disappointment of the Algerians to see the French ministerial delegation reduced to a trickle as a sign of French disinterest in this special Franco-Algerian relationship, emphasises Mustapha Tossa. The second is the absence of this French delegation of the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who is said to have a very pronounced pro-Algerian bias, says the political scientist.

But the real reason for this Algerian anger and bitterness towards Paris, says the political scientist Mustapha Tossa, undoubtedly comes from certain signals that announce a totally pro-Moroccan position in the Sahara conflict. Recently, in the midst of the preparation of this visit of Jean Castex, the party of President Emmanuel Macron, « La République en Marche » decided to open a section in the mythical city of Dakhla in the Sahara. Certainly, this is the last straw for those who know Algeria’s position on the Western Sahara issue.