Franco-Algerian relations: one step forward, two steps back

Diplomatic relations between France and Algeria are once again at a low ebb. However, a telephone exchange between Emmanuel Macron and Abdelmadjid Tebboune a fortnight ago, followed by a visit to Algiers by foreign affairs minister Jean-Noël Barrot, seemed to have calmed the situation. Paris and Algiers were at loggerheads in early March over the Western Sahara, the expulsion of Algerians under the OLFT (Obligation to leave the French territory) and the arrest of Boualem Sansal.

Hostilities resumed on 12 April with the indictment of three Algerian, including an officer from the Algerian consulate in Créteil, as part of an investigation into the kidnapping of an Algerian opposition figure in France. Algeria reacted by expelling twelve French officials from the Ministry of the Interior, which was particularly targeted because of Bruno Retailleau’s repeated attacks on the Algerian regime. France retaliated by expelling twelve Algerian diplomats and recalling its ambassador. Still shaken by particularly sensitive economic, geopolitical, migratory and memorial issues, Franco-Algerian relations will require considerable effort on both sides to return to normal.

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