Copé Pleads For A Brand New Era Between Algeria And France

Secretary General of French ruling party the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), Jean-François Copé, said on Monday in Algiers that he wishes to see “Algeria and France opening a new page of shared development.”

In a conference he held at the Institute of Political Sciences, Mr Copé said: “I wish we could open with Algeria a brand new era of shared development, in terms of politics, economy, commerce, and tourism.”

“We are such linked peoples and we’ve got common positive things to do together,” he said.

The conference of Mr Copé raised several issues related to reforms underway in France under the UMP majority party, including in terms of immigration.

In this regard, the French official said: “there’s not a fully rejection of France to this issue (immigration),” adding that “France has to have lucid and realistic policy in terms of her capacities of taking care of immigrants. We are fighting against illegal immigration.”

“As for the ordinary immigration, we are working to adapt it to our reception capacities, so it is not only about the problem of visa,” he explained. 

He further mentioned that he personally rejects the bill on the abolishment of the right to have two nationalities in France, known as the bi-nationality bill.  

Responding to a question over the military intervention of France in the strife torn Libya, Mr Copé indicated that “France has not intervened just like that in Libya, but rather it was an intervention proclaimed by a resolution of the UN and the international community and also according to the specific events which have been occurring there.”

To recall, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has received Monday in Djenane El-Mufti, in upper Algiers, Jean-François Copé.

General Secretary of the ruling party in France has also been received by Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci. 

Mr Copé, who is on a visit to Algeria at the invitation of Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Rachid Harraoubia, has addressed a conference at the Institute of Political Sciences in Algiers and then held a press conference at the French Cultural Centre (CCF).