Algerian Moves In The Run-Up To The European Parliament Elections

The elections to the European Parliament, expected next June, constitute an important milestone for Algerian interests in the old continent, and the first meeting of the “AMEL” organization, hosted by the Grand Mosque of Paris at the end of last week, comes to define the direction to be followed less than two months before the European elections.
The Amel organization is a coordinating alliance between various mosques, associations and Muslim leaders in a number of European countries, such as France, Germany, Austria, Croatia, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. It was created last October on the initiative of the Dean of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Shams al-Din Hafid.
A “tweet” from the Grand Mosque of Paris, on the “X” platform (formerly Twitter), spoke of a meeting that “brought together several representatives of European Muslims at the Grand Mosque of Paris, under the banner of the AMAL Coordination Council, to hold fundamental discussions on the most pressing issues surrounding Islam in Europe. “.
The Muslim community, especially the Algerian one, is considered to be one of the largest communities in Europe and in particular in France, which makes its alignment with a candidate or electoral list in the next elections a decisive factor for the victory of this candidate or that list, which requires coordination between Islamic religious institutions of mosques and associations.
The members of the Muslim and Algerian community, especially in France, fear a repetition of the scenario of the recent European elections, which witnessed the emergence of fear-mongering extremists, who are currently vigorously preparing for a repetition of this scene, which requires massive recruitment of members of the Muslim and Algerian community in particular to confront it.
The lunch organized by the dean of the Paris mosque last Friday in honor of the representative of Algerian origin in the European Parliament, Sabrina Sebaihi, who belongs to the Green bloc, is an indication of the existence of coordination in this context.
The dean of the Paris mosque wrote in a tweet on the “X” platform, accompanied by a photo: “A banquet in honor of the deputy Sabrina Sabahi at the Grand Mosque of Paris; A great opportunity to pay tribute to her for her unwavering commitment to collective memory.”
Representative Sabrina Sebaihi is considered one of the most active French representatives working on the file of memory. She is credited with proposing a law in which the French state recognizes the repression of Algerian demonstrators in Paris on October 17, 1961, and honors the lives of the victims. These efforts have recently borne fruit. The French state condemned the crime, even if the condemnation was limited to the deceased Paris police officer, the serial killer Maurice Papon.
The aforementioned meeting, as well as the banquet to which the deputies Sabrina Sabaihi and Fatiha Keloua Hachi were invited by the Dean of the Grand Mosque of Paris, indicate that there are efforts, in one way or another, to mobilize circles close to Algeria and to create alliances in anticipation of the European parliamentary elections to be held next June, and not to give way to Algeria’s enemies, especially the extreme right, which usually serves the interests of the Moroccan regime.
The scandal that shook the throne of the Moroccan regime the year before last, known as the issue of the purchase of the claims of European representatives by representatives working for the Moroccan secret service, and because of which a number of European representatives of Belgian, Italian and Greek nationalities were imprisoned, confirms that the vacant chair policy is not useful in such times. Especially when it comes to an institution that carries weight in the relations between the countries of the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean.