France’s Far-Right Is Fanning The Flames Of The Crisis With Algeria

The French far-right is keen every time to pour more gasoline on the fire of Algerian-French relations, which have entered a dark tunnel since last summer, when the first man in the Elysee Palace decided to side with the Moroccan regime on the issue of Western Sahara, driven by the pressure exerted on him by extremists, to preserve what remains of his political future.

Eric Cioti, a member of the French National Assembly (the lower chamber of parliament), a far-right politician who was recently expelled from the presidency of the “Republicans” party (the traditional right), came out to attack Algeria, in light of the escalation between the two capitals, which took place after the Foreign Ministry summoned the French ambassador to Algeria, Stephane Romatet, to convey to him a strict official protest over the mistreatment faced by Algerian travelers at Parisian airports.

For the second time in about a month, the French ambassador to Algeria was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to convey Algeria’s rejection of French provocations, an indication of the level to which bilateral relations have reached, for which the French party is solely responsible, due to the “unfriendly” practices in which it continues to engage.

Eric Cioti, who founded his new party “Union of the Republican Right” after his expulsion from the “Republicans” party, repeated a phrase echoed by French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau,, Algeria’s desire to “humiliate France” following Algeria’s refusal to receive the influencer “Boualem” due to his deportation outside legal and diplomatic frameworks, expressing his shock that his country’s authorities did not raise their voice against Algeria.

Eric Ciotti was bragging about what US President Donald Trump did after taking office, when he decided to deport hundreds of Colombian migrants on board two US military planes, something he wished would happen with Algerian migrants, but his disappointment was great, due to what he described as the “inability” of Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau to do so, as he works within a coalition in a government “hanging on the goodwill of the Socialist Party,” as he put it.

The right-wing politician expressed his admiration  at the rhetoric adopted by the French Interior Minister during his guest appearance on BFM TV, but this remains insufficient, according to the leader of the Republican Right Union party, as he said, he is waiting for actions, not words, and commented on what is happening, describing it as a French failure in the face of Algeria, noting that Bruno Retailleau is “forced to raise the voice to hide the void of the event.”

Eric Ciotti, who was elected as a deputy in the lower chamber of the French parliament for the Alpes-Maritimes region in the last legislative elections, is considered a colleague of Interior Minister Retailleau in the “Republicans” party about six months ago, but Ciotti’s alliance with the extreme right represented in the “National Rally” party, led by the Le Pen family, turned him against his colleagues in the party and he was thrown out of the window.

The leader of the Union of the Republican Right did not digest the inability of the French authorities to respond to the Algerian counterpart’s decision to refuse to receive the influencer “Boualem”, not by imposing sanctions, inspired by the way US President Trump did, asking: “Have we reviewed the 1968 immigration agreement? Have we stopped buying Algerian gas? Have we stopped granting visas to Algerian nationals and officials for treatment in French hospitals?”

Ciotti has previously pressured the French president to support the Moroccan regime’s so-called “autonomy plan” in Western Sahara. Ciotti was a guest of the Alaouite kingdom in the spring of 2023, from where he called on Macron to “correct” relations with Rabat at the expense of Algeria.