Algerian-French Relations Face A “Dead End”

As of Saturday evening, the name of the French President, Emmanuel Macron, is not on the list of the presidents who send congratulations to Algeria’s new president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, given that the Algerian-French relationships are expecting to witness more tension.

The United States of America, the Russian Federation, Spain, Italy, and other Arab and African countries congratulated the new president of Algeria, while France lagged behind, a position that had not been recorded for more than two decades, as Paris was among the first to congratulate the former president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in the four terms, but the situation differed this time.

The French failure to congratulate the winning president in the 12/12 presidential presidents was expected, as when Tebboune was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Authority, Macron was giving advice in the form of orders to the Algerian authorities, to offer dialogue with the people (…).

Macron was already aware that such a statement could add additional troubles to the already frustrated Algerian-French relationships, yet he did not avoid falling into this pitfall, which was faced by the Algerian response by the president Tebboune who said that he refused to comment on the statement of his French counterpart, but the body language in dealing with the question showed his great annoyance with that statement.

The “annoying” statement of the French President came to further complicate the crisis of relationships between Algeria and Paris, which entered the tunnel in the early days of the popular movement, and the reason is the involvement of the French party in supporting internal parties that were aiming to worsen the situation in the country, by trying to jump on the military institution’s efforts in searching for solutions to the crisis of the country, and this was alluded to by Deputy National Defense Minister and Chief of Staff of the National People’s Army, Major General Ahmed Gaid Salah, in more than one speech.

Another indication that the Algerian-French relations have entered a dark tunnel is the focused media campaign that was launched by “France 24” when Tebboune was announced president of Algeria. This TV channel is not public or private but it is directly affiliated with the French Foreign Ministry, which means that the method of handling the results of the presidential elections was directed and with the blessing of the Quai d’Orsay.

Some analysts in France believe that the new president of Algeria is hostile to the French interests, and they rely on building this position on the procedure that Tebboune undertook more than two years ago when he was the prime minister, as he banned the import of French apples due to suspicions about inflating the bills after he investigated its price at its source, and what is being marketed in Algeria, which caused a stir among farmers in France, and a suspicious alliance at home by some gang figures, which led to his ouster from the prime ministry.

On the other hand, the Algerian side sees its French counterpart as standing behind all the problems that it brings from the northern bank of the Mediterranean, and perhaps the most important of them is the controversial European Parliament regulation, which was moved, as is well known, by the French MEP, Raphaël Glucksmann.

Prior to that, there were leaks about a request that was made by the French Ambassador to Algeria, Xavier Driancourt, to the French President, in which he requested to be relieved of his position, and those sources justified this request, due to the difficulties that Driancourt is facing in carrying out his diplomatic mission, due to the severe control that he faced by the Algerian authorities, due to suspicions about secret meetings that gathered some gang figures and French parties.