Emmanuel Macron To Visit Algeria On Monday

Independent candidate for the French Elections, Emmanuel Macron, is expected to visit Algeria, on Monday and Tuesday, in order to meet with several officials, including the Prime Minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, to discuss the status of the relationship between the two countries, and the challenges that the Mediterranean region is facing.

French media quoted the advisers of Macron, who is ranked by opinion polls as one of the front-runners in the Presidential Election, as saying that “Algeria is a very important station in the election race because of the historical, economic and trade relationships with France.”

According to the same sources, “This visit comes within the framework of Emmanuel Macron program, which intends to develop a Mediterranean and Arab policy at the heart of the French diplomatic work”.

He also calls to rely on Algeria and Egypt, as the two pivotal countries in any European move toward the crisis in Libya, and even in the treatment of the issue of illegal immigration file.

Macron, who is a former Economy Minister, will discuss in Algeria, according to his advisers, the bilateral relationships, with the Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal, the Foreign Minister, Ramtane Lamamra, and the Industry Minister, Abdessalam Bouchouareb, and will meet the French community, and he is also expected to visit the Martyr’s Shrine (Maqam) in the capital Algiers, in a symbolic step toward the Algerian revolutionary war martyrs.

Positions of Macron towards the colonial history of France in Algeria, is not different from the position of the right wing candidates such as Francois Fillon, as he said, in an interview with the French magazine “Le Point”, on last November, that “In Algeria, there was torture, but also there was the emergence of a state, wealth and middle class. This is the reality of colonialism, as there have been elements of urbanization and others of brutality”.

Macron is considered the third candidate for the French Presidency to visit Algeria, after Alain Juppé (right) and Arnaud Montbourg (left), who were excluded in the primaries.

Emanuel Macron is described by French media as the Hollywood star in the French politics, as he is a former French Economy Minister (2014-2016), who was transformed into a political phenomenon since his resignation from his ministerial post in the month of August 2016, to establish the movement “En Marche” Forward.

Observers believe that he represents a compromise between the left and right wings in France.

Right wing describes Emmanuel Macron as the “Agent”, and think he is the fiercest competitor, who could be an obstacle to the arrival of Francois Fillon to the power.

Socialist Party calls him the “New Brutus”, the political philosopher who participated in the murder of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar in 44 BC, although this part was the fine-tuning of his career and gave him all the good deeds so that Francois Hollande alluded to him earlier as being a “traitor”.