After verbal de-escalation, resumption of physical contact. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian traveled to Algiers on Tuesday, December 8, to meet with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in the hope of initiating reconciliation with Algeria after two months of diplomatic crisis, the more virulent for fifteen years. ” I hope that our two countries will resume together the path of a peaceful relationship “, Declared to the press Mr. Le Drian alongside his counterpart Ramtane Lamamra, adding that France and Algeria must” To look forward “.
The French minister insisted on ” trust ” To ” reconnect ” and on ” the deepening of our partnership ” – qualified as” essential »-, so many pleasant words solemnizing the will of Paris to overcome the recent atrocities. This trip to Algiers extends the hand extended by the Elysee Palace which had let it be known on November 9, through the voice of a member of the presidential entourage, that Emmanuel Macron “regretted” the “controversies and misunderstandings”.
The crisis had erupted five weeks earlier after the remarks made during a meeting at the Elysee Palace with “little children” of the Algerian war. The Head of State had mentioned a ” Algerian politico-military system “Which would have been built on the” memorial rent “And” hatred of France “. He went so far as to question the existence of “ the Algerian nation (…) before French colonization “. Denouncing “irresponsible remarks”, Algiers replied by recalling for consultation its ambassador in Paris and banned the overflight of its airspace to French military planes participating in operation “Barkhane” in Mali.
A long process
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune then denounced in an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel from “ insults “ who have “ hurt the dignity of Algerians ” and fall, according to him, to “The old colonial hatred”. We had to go back to 2005 when the controversy triggered by the adoption at the Palais Bourbon of an article of law on the “Positive role of the French presence in North Africa” to find traces of such verbal acrimony between the two countries. The new outbreak of fever was all the more paradoxical as Mr. Macron had made it a point of honor to launch his construction site. “Memorial reconciliation”, in his view a prerequisite for a lasting normalization of the bilateral relationship.
The outbreak of the crisis undermined a number of joint actions that Paris intended to carry out with Algiers, in particular in the stabilization of the Sahelo-Saharan zone where the issues of Mali and Libya are priorities. ” With a partner as essential as Algeria, we cannot afford to be in a degraded situation for long. “, Says one in the entourage of Mr. Le Drian. The boss of the Quai d’Orsay had already met Mr. Lamamra on October 26 in Kigali on the sidelines of a meeting of members of the African Union and the European Union before meeting him on November 12 in Paris during a meeting. international conference on Libya. Tuesday’s visit to Algiers is only “ the start of a process which will be quite long ”, warns the entourage of the French minister.
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