Council of the Nation: “French hostile campaign may scuttle Algerian-French relations”

The Council of the Nation or Upper House of Parliament said in a statement issued Thursday in Algiers that the low-down exploitation of a picture of President of the Republic Abdelaziz Bouteflika is a serious drift that exceeds the limits of political decency and diplomatic customs, while hailing the momentum of the Algerian people who do not tolerate any attack on their State, symbols and their institutions.

“The orchestrated campaign against Algeria has once again been confirmed in this line by the blameworthy behaviour of the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls after the honour bestowed upon him to be received by the President of the Republic himself, a serious mistake denoting a malicious intention and showing an ill-considered propensity that violates ethics, diplomatic customs and the bounds of the political decency,” hammered the Council of the Nation.

“The manifold attacks stemming from various French ill-intentioned circles reflect a systematic campaign going in the opposite direction of the progress achieved over the past few years for the building of a privileged Algerian-French relation with strategic prospects based on shared interests, trust and mutual respect,” the Council underscored.

These are unacceptable insults which are not an isolated case, added the Council of the Nation, which also noted that previously, a French newspaper had already, in gross defiance of the deontology of the press, evoked brazenly the so-called Panama Papers with the covert aim of dealing a blow to the State’s symbols and institutions.

The Council of the nation denounces a blatant drift in a hostile French campaign targeting Algeria and the Algerian people through its lofty symbols.

These successive attacks come from voices, known for their animosity towards our country, that rise within the French Parliament to demand shamelessly, the indemnification of the “Pieds Noirs” (Europeans who used to live in the French colonies of North Africa), and which is now striving to adopt a law that rehabilitates the treacherous “harkis” (French Colonial Army’s Algerian collaborators) and offset the harm suffered by the latter. 

The Council of the Nation further hailed the widespread popular support expressed at the national level lambasting this malicious campaign, a support that is akin to the Algerian people, who do not accept any attack on their State or its symbols and institutions.

For the Council of the Nation, this patriotic backing reflects the Algerian people’s firm attachment to the President of the Republic and their recognition for the manifold achievements he’d made, and those still to come under his wise and clear-sighted leadership.