Former French Ambassador to Algeria Fans the Flames of Discord Again

While Algerian-French relations are still struggling to regain equilibrium after nearly two years of an unprecedented diplomatic crisis, the French far right, as usual, appears determined, once again, to thrust Algeria into the heart of France’s domestic political battles ahead of next year’s presidential election. The objective is clear: undermine the recent signs of rapprochement between Algiers and Paris witnessed in recent weeks and as part of its calculated agenda aiming to maintain a climate of tension capable of serving electoral ambitions for the Élysée Palace.
After several weeks of relative calm in the French media’s treatment of Algeria, former French ambassador to Algiers Xavier Driencourt resurfaced at the end of last week with an article published in the right-wing newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche. In it, he warned against what he described as Algeria’s potential influence on the upcoming French presidential election.

Since retiring in 2020 at the end of his second term as ambassador to Algeria, Driencourt has gradually established himself as one of the leading voices of the French far-right camp on Franco-Algerian affairs. He has become a regular advisor to right-wing political circles and media outlets, particularly Le Figaro, where he frequently promotes divisive narratives through articles, interviews, conferences, and essays centered on Algeria.

In his latest article, Driencourt spoke about what he claimed was an Algerian involvement in French presidential elections dating back to the 1980s. He argued that Algeria supported Socialist candidate François Mitterrand during the 1981 presidential race against outgoing right-wing president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. Yet this interpretation overlooks the broader historical context: Giscard d’Estaing was widely perceived by many Algerian immigrants as the mastermind of a hostile campaign against immigrant communities, particularly Algerians, during a period marked by very restrictive migration policies. His presidency saw tens of thousands of Algerian immigrants abandon their residency permits and return to Algeria.

According to the retired diplomat, Algerian authorities’ stances toward French presidential candidates have rarely been driven by ideological or political considerations, but rather by perceived alignment with Algerian interests. He further claims that Algeria, with its large electorate, later supported former President Jacques Chirac despite his Gaullist background, after having previously socialist favored Mitterrand, who governed France from 1981 to 1995.

Driencourt also suggests that former President Nicolas Sarkozy — who has been convicted in several corruption-related cases — enjoyed the admiration of Algerian authorities, an assertion many observers would regard as highly questionable. Sarkozy’s relationship with Algeria was marked by deep tensions long before he entered the Élysée Palace. As Minister of the Interior under Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin during Jacques Chirac’s presidency, he drew widespread criticism for his inflammatory rhetoric toward suburban youth, many of whom were of North African and Algerian descent. In 2005, he notoriously referred to young people in the suburbs as “scum” and vowed to “clean the neighborhoods with a Kärcher,” remarks that were widely perceived as stigmatizing and openly hostile toward immigrant communities, particularly Algerians.

Moreover, Sarkozy is widely regarded in Algeria as the architect of France’s support for the Moroccan regime’s autonomy plan regarding Western Sahara, a position that sharply contradicted Algeria’s long-standing diplomatic stance on the issue. His presidency, which lasted from 2007 to 2012, marked the beginning of France’s -non declared- shift in position towards the Western Sahara issue before he was defeated by Socialist candidate François Hollande in his bid for a second term.

Beyond the historical debate, Driencourt’s repeated interventions reveal a broader political agenda increasingly aligned with the French far right’s strategy of instrumentalizing Algeria and immigration issues for electoral purposes. At a moment when both Paris and Algiers appear cautiously seeking a path toward normalization, such rhetoric risks reigniting tensions and reviving the very antagonisms that have long complicated relations between the two countries.