France Lost Many Interests in Algeria With Naive Decisions

After every provocative decision or position taken against Algeria, French officials attempt to divert attention by issuing statements indicating that Paris has no intention of escalating the situation. These statements usually follow an Algerian response, guaranteed by the principle of “reciprocity” inherent in diplomatic norms.

This approach applies literally to French Prime Minister François Bayrou, who came out immediately after Algeria decided to cancel the 2013 visa agreement for diplomats from both countries, as well as to cancel the “disposal status” of the properties occupied by the French embassy, consulates, and diplomatic and cultural annexes in Algeria. Bayrou stated that what French President Emmanuel Macron had requested “is not aimed at permanent confrontation with Algeria, but rather at seeking balanced and fair relations.”

The French official’s statement revealed a surprise that Paris had not anticipated. Algeria’s response did not stop at the principle of reciprocity (the cancellation of the 2013 agreement), but rather extended to another issue that the French side had not hoped to address, given its sensitivity. This issue relates to a decades-long concession, namely the real estate properties under the control of the French Embassy in Algeria and its diplomatic annexes. Paris had only paid in symbolic francs, according to the Algerian Foreign Ministry’s statement.

Since the beginning of the recent diplomatic crisis more than a year ago, Algeria was not the party that initiated the provocation. French President Emmanuel Macron took the initiative to change his country’s position on the Western Sahara issue in favour of the Moroccan regime, at a time when bilateral relations were stable and the issue of memory was heading toward a de-escalation. This was before everything came to a sudden standstill. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had warned his French counterpart at the G20 summit in Italy (in June 2024) that he would lose Algeria if he supported the Moroccan regime’s expansionist ambitions in Western Sahara.

French officials have a habit of acting, after every provocation by Algeria, as if nothing had happened. Paris has expelled Algerians legally residing in France without the slightest respect for consular norms, a phenomenon that has been repeated dozens of times. When Algeria demanded that they respect legal procedures, they acted as if they were right, in an absurd scene that falls far short of the norms of interstate relations.

With extreme haste, French officials quickly dismissed their provocations as if they had never happened, raising their concerns to Algeria and seeking immediate action. They cast doubt on the credibility of Algerian justice when they demanded the release of Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who had been convicted by a final ruling in a case that threatened the country’s security and territorial integrity.

It has become clear from the outset, and confirmed by the facts, that French justice is politicised and not impartial. This is evidenced by the decision issued about a week ago against two Algerians for their alleged involvement in a fight with a YouTuber who is escaping Algerian justice and against whom an international warrant was issued. They were sentenced to five years in prison, a decision that surprised even the French. Legal experts and human rights activists in France considered the five-year sentence to be significantly exaggerated, given that the case involved a street brawl, at a time when much more serious cases, such as the sexual assault of a minor in France, carry a sentence of only 23 months, equivalent to about a third of the sentence for a brawl. This is ridiculous, according to legal experts.

It has become almost certain that after every French provocation followed by an Algerian escalation, the repercussions for French interests become increasingly serious. This is a lesson that officials in Paris still seem unable to grasp, despite the passage of more than a year since the escalating political and diplomatic crisis. Macron and his entourage will not learn this lesson until they wake up to the realisation that they have lost everything in Algeria.