A Proposed Regulation Before The French Parliament To Revise The 1968 Immigration Agreement

As usual, the French right-wing, represented by the “Republicans” party, continues to target Algerian-French relations, in what seems to be a challenge to the directives of President Emmanuel Macron, through efforts aimed at reviewing the immigration agreements signed between the two parties on December 7, 1968, which gives privileges to Algerians, but many say that it has been emptied of its content by the modifications made to it.
In this context, the right-wing party, which has lost all Gaullist values, has decided to submit a bill to the French Parliament on the seventh of next December to denounce the immigration agreement, as the first official step to attack this document, which has been the subject of attacks by the right and the extreme right in recent months.
The draft list was presented by the representative of the Republican Party, Olivier Marleix, and the draft was inspired by a previous statement made by the former French Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, in his interview with the “Express” magazine, according to the website of the magazine “Valeurs Actuelles” (Current Values).
The 1968 agreement, the revision of which some French have been calling for for weeks, regulates the movement of people between Algeria and France and grants Algerians privileges to move, work, study, reside and practice liberal professions. These privileges are reserved exclusively for Algerians from Tunisia, Morocco and the rest of the former French colonies.
The adoption of this bill by the French Parliament does not mean that the Agreement will be suspended. Rather, it is a decision that expresses the French party’s dissatisfaction with its continued implementation. However, its parliamentary approval remains a matter of doubt, since the French president has the majority of representatives in the lower chamber of parliament (the National Assembly), through the Renaissance Party led by the Renaissance Party, as well as the bloc of left parties led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, which rejects anti-immigration policies.
The discussion to cancel this agreement was launched about a year ago by the former French ambassador to Algeria for two terms, There are signs of improvement in Algerian-French relations.
However, over time, the anti-Algerian lobbies, generally belonging to the extreme right and to the right, as well as some political figures, began to embrace the ideas of the retired diplomat, who, according to many observers, seemed to be settling his previous scores with the Algerian authorities, who had imposed strict censorship on him at the time. The period of the “Popular Movement”, due to the suspicious movements that took place behind the scenes at the time.
Edouard Philippe, the former prime minister and potential candidate to succeed President Emmanuel Macron in 2027, called last June to unilaterally stop the implementation of this agreement (France), or at least to denounce it, even if this led to the collapse of diplomatic relations with Algeria. This week, Barre reiterated his position on the agreement.
There is a discussion in French salons that the continued implementation of this agreement limits the influence of the French Ministry of the Interior in deporting illegal immigrants, because despite the strictness of the immigration laws it has enacted, it remains hostage to the 1968 agreement because it is an international agreement and not just an ordinary law, as is known. International agreements take precedence over national laws, as required by international norms.