The storm, again. The relationship between Paris and Algiers, subject to cyclical storms, has swung back into an area of strong turbulence after the unusually harsh remarks made Thursday, September 30 by Emmanuel Macron – and reported exclusively by The world, Saturday 2 October – against one “Politico-military system” Algerian ” tiredness “. The case is all the more serious because, far from being an accidental slippage, the statements of the French president seemed carefully weighed, with the obvious intention of being relayed.
Moreover, the Algerian government was not mistaken in denouncing “Irresponsible words” and an “Iunacceptable interference in its internal affairs ”, immediately recalled its ambassador to Paris and banned the overflight of its airspace to French military planes participating in Operation Barkhane in Mali. This renewed tension between the two capitals does not only risk accelerating the reconfiguration of the regional strategic landscape, by “Throwing France more into the arms of Moroccans”, according to a former French diplomat familiar with the Algerian dossier. Bilaterally, it also confirms the virtual failure of the effort of memorial reconciliation – at the diplomatic level in any case – that Emmanuel Macron had undertaken with Algeria in the wake of the publication, in January, of the report commissioned from historian Benjamin Stora.
When the Elysee organized a meeting, on September 30, with eighteen young people from different groups linked to the memory of the Algerian war – grandchildren of Pieds-Noirs, soldiers, Harkis, FLN activists and Jews from Algeria… – the Head of State seizes the opportunity to deliver a message without any ambiguity. Once evoked ” the sufferings “ and “Trauma” transmitted to the heirs of the tragedy of the war (1954-1962), it releases sentences never heard in the mouth of a French president against a “Politico-military system” in Algiers, which, according to him, was “Built on the memorial rent” and “Hatred of France”. ” We see that the Algerian system is tired, the Hirak [mouvement de protestation] weakened it, adds Mr. Macron. I have a good dialogue with President Tebboune, but I see that he is caught in a system which is very harsh. “
“A clean break”
In doing so, the French head of state crosses the red line in the eyes of Algiers. Not only does he use a term (the “Politico-military system” Algerian) that diplomatic customs reject – in favor of more neutral formulas ” government “ or“Authorities” -, but he implies that his counterpart, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, “ caught in this system ”, In fact only enjoys limited power. Equally transgressive is his allusion to the announced 50% reduction in the number of visas which aims above all, according to him, to “To annoy the people who are in the ruling milieu”. “It is a clear break with the very diplomatic and conciliatory speeches with carefully crafted language elements”, commented on Sunday an editorial of the daily Algeria Freedom.
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