Disagreements Within the French Government Over the Crisis With Algeria

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot rejected his far-right colleague, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau’s interference in foreign policy powers.

He said that “it is at the Quai d’Orsay, under the authority of the President of the Republic, that France’s foreign policy is forged”, which means that these powers remain among the “Quai d’Orsay” prerogatives because Retailleau created “conflict” with Algeria after he decided to deport the influencer Boualem outside the legal and diplomatic frameworks.

Despite the focused questions that the RTL journalist directed at the French Foreign Minister to persuade him to adopt the thesis of the Interior Minister, Bruno Rotailleau, regarding Algeria, Jean-Noël Barrot refused to be carried away by these attempts. He stressed that putting “important relations with Algeria” back on track is one of his priorities as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Noël Barrot was asked whether Algeria had “humiliated France” after returning the influencer “Boualem” who was deported by the Paris authorities, as Bruno Rotailleau put it. Barrot responded by refusing to use the same description, saying: “I don’t think so”, explaining that foreign policy is the prerogative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which operates under the recommendations of the French President.

The RTL journalist asked again: “Don’t you think that the Algerians have humiliated us?” The Foreign Minister responded with a diplomatic answer: “My mission is not to pour oil on the fire. My role is to solve problems, and crises can’t be solved through studios.” Faced with the journalist’s insistence on embarrassing him, the Minister said: “We must return to essential matters. France and Algeria must maintain good relations. When Algeria took a decision, as happened on January 9, we said that this is unacceptable and needs our response.”

The French Foreign Minister continued to defend the restoration of strained relations with Algeria: “It is not in our interest to continue in a crisis between two neighbouring countries, two major countries in the Mediterranean,” in a second message to those who want to invest in the diplomatic crisis and push for its destruction.

Jean-Noel Barrot confirmed that his role is to solve the crisis, not complicate it. This came in response to the RTL journalist who set many traps for him to push him to make a statement that would increase tension, and he was very careful in answering the explosive questions: “My role as Minister of Foreign Affairs is to solve problems,” in a clear direction towards calming down and avoiding escalation, contrary to what Interior Minister Rotailleau was pushing for.

The French Interior Minister belongs to the traditional right (the Republicans Party), but his positions and statements hostile to Algeria make him a figure closer to the extreme right, represented by the “National Rally” party, led by the Le Pen family, although its front is a person of Algerian origin, named Jordan Bardella.

While the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, belongs to the “Modem” (democratic movement) party, led by the Prime Minister, François Bayrou, who has centrist tendencies, does neither belong to the right, with its traditional and extremist branches, nor to the left, which is part of the “New National Front” bloc, which won the last legislative elections, which explains his lack of enthusiasm to defend the mistakes of his colleague in the government, driven by political considerations charged with a disease called “Algeromania”.

For the third time in ten days, the French Foreign Minister confirmed his readiness to visit Algeria if he received an invitation from the Algerian authorities, to overcome the controversial issues: “I had announced my readiness to go to Algeria to discuss with the Algerian authorities, to resolve all the pending issues, not just this issue.”

Barrot was asked if there was a response from the Algerian side to his request, and he replied: “We have submitted our proposal and we are still waiting.” He confirmed that the (French) President and the Prime Minister (François Bayrou) will meet in the coming days to take the necessary measures to restore the important cooperation between the two countries.

Regarding the fate of the 1968 immigration agreement, the French Foreign Minister said: “It has been reviewed several times, and it is advantageous in some cases (to Algerians) and disadvantageous in other cases, and these are issues that will be discussed with the President and the Prime Minister. Unfortunately, I think the incident of Algeria’s refusal to deport the influencer has little to do with the immigration agreement”, while he refused to discuss the visit of the French foreign intelligence official, Nicolas Lerner, to Algeria, affirming that “after all, it is protected by secrecy”.