Driencourt: “Algeria For France Is An Internal Affair, Not A Diplomatic One”

The former French ambassador to Algeria, Xavier Driencourt, recounts the sensitivity of the relationship between Algeria and its former colonizer, to the extent that it prompts everyone who writes his memoirs and is exposed to this country, to think in advance about the consequences of his words and phrases.

As a matter of fact, Driencourt expressed in his memoirs, which he entitled “The Algerian Riddle: Embassy Papers in Algeria”, what surrounded him as he wrote the first words of his book: “Everything that is written about Algeria, especially in Paris, which may, to some extent, be inconsistent with what is being said.

Before deciding to write his memoirs about the diplomatic mission he accomplished in Algeria as an ambassador for nearly ten years, he said that he thought carefully and weighed the consequences well: “I expect that these few memories and the following observations will be analyzed, commented on and undoubtedly criticized, in Algeria, according to what was stated in the excerpts from the book published by publishing house the “Observatoire”.

It may even amount to summoning the French ambassador against the background of notes issued by a former ambassador, and in what he wrote, “The French ambassador may be summoned, and he will ask if France is speaking through the former ambassador, and the press will be unleashed and social networks will be activated.” Although these notes do not bind the French authorities, but rather bind their author only.

In this regard, the French diplomat recalled the reactions spawned by the memoirs of the former French ambassador to Algeria, Bernard Bajolet, and the few phrases taken from his book, which were taken out of context and dressed up by other misplaced readings, although he spoke about the courage, kindness, struggle and perseverance of the Algerians, when “They also showed it during the long years of struggle against France,” he said.

The French diplomat touched on the difficult political period that Algeria experienced after the stroke of the former president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and how it affected his work as an observer of the situation (as an ambassador) in a country that is more than important to France: “I knew how difficult this country is, the difficult life in Algeria, the very great complexity, due to the internal political situation since the stroke of President Bouteflika in 2013, and of course the immense loneliness experienced by a French ambassador in Algeria.

He also spoke about the “popular movement” or “Hirak” that erupted on February 22, 2019, which overthrew the former president, and how it affected his work, because the Algerian authorities at the time had demanded his deportation because of what was reported to be his relationship to aggravating the internal situation.

The memoirs of the former French ambassador clearly revealed the importance of Algeria to France, when he recorded “without going so far as to address the phrase of former President Francois Mitterrand in 1954, in which he said that Algeria is France. I say after nearly eight years I spent there (that is, Algeria), it is indeed “French domestic policy as much as it is diplomatic, because Algeria is as important to the French as Germany in terms of a common history and economic partnership”.

Driencourt quotes a statement by Maurice Gordo Montaigne, Secretary-General of the embassy when he was in Algeria, in which he said: “For France and its diplomacy, there were two countries that were particularly important and, of course, for different reasons: Germany and Algeria. So we must be attentive to our relations with these two main partners”.

These confessions confirm the roots of the cosmopolitan mentality of French politicians in their relationship to the lost paradise, but in the light of today the parity imposed by Algeria has become dreams from the past.