Francophile Lobby Dens Mobilize Against The Ministry of National Education’s Decision

The Francophile lobby in Algeria and France has moved to criticize the decision of the Ministry of National Education to demote the French language in the primary stage to a rank after the English language, considering the latter as the language of science and technology.

Despite this current’s conviction that the Algerian decision was built on solid ground, it deliberately misled public opinion by attempting to distance the French language from the causes of backwardness experienced by countries subjected to multi-dimensional French colonialism.

In a contribution to the French newspaper “Mediapart”, Elias Zouari, director of the so-called “French Center for Studies and Thinking on the Francophone World”, criticized the Ministry of Education’s actions, accusing the step of being a move toward “completely removing Algeria from the Francophone community and making Algeria an English-speaking country”, which indicates the level of anger felt in Francophile circles in Paris and other capitals beholden to its language.

While the decision was supposed to be discussed with objectivity and impartiality, away from loyalty and clientelism, given that English is the first language in the world and the language of science and technology even in the heart of the French language’s home, the author of the article presented false justifications regarding the progress of French- and English-speaking countries in the African continent.

He highlighted the progress of French-speaking African countries compared to their English-speaking counterparts in an intentional but exposed deception, because by the logic of numbers, there is not a single Francophone country among the top ranks in terms of economic progress in the dark continent.

What is interesting is that the director of the French Center for Studies and Thinking on the Francophone World went so far in his defense of the French language in Algeria as to demand that Paris take a sovereign decision to stop issuing visas to Algerians.

He wrote: “Since Algeria decided to leave the global Francophone community, there is no longer anything obliging France, even from a moral standpoint, to continue granting visas to Algerian citizens, whether they are student, worker, family reunification, or short-stay visas”.

What is also interesting is the synchronization of this article with the emergence of the consultant to the former Minister of Education, Ahmed Tessa, who in turn criticized the decision to work toward liquidating the French language in the educational system and excluding it permanently from the primary stage.

Known political figures in Algeria also rushed to defend the French language, considering it “war booty”, as they said.

The decision taken by the Ministry of National Education is considered a sovereign decision that is not up for discussion, and it takes into account the interest of Algerian students and the future of the entire country, given that the French language has become a secondary language in the world, and that even French universities conduct their scientific research in English.

Nevertheless, the Francophile elites there did not consider that a “departure from the Francophone community”, as the author of the aforementioned article claimed.

Based on this paradox, observers believe that the emergence of voices criticizing the Algerian sovereign decision only expresses a deep-seated feeling among the various arms defending the French neo-colonial project that Algeria is moving steadily toward its liberation from the remnants of the colonial past. These remnants no longer have meaning in a society carving its path steadily toward a linguistic identity based on strategic directions that consider the country’s interest in a world rapidly shifting toward English as the language of science and technology.

These voices cannot be separated from those that previously raised their voices warning of the loss of France’s economic interests in Algeria during the last few years. These are considered results of the crystallization and embodiment of ideas tending toward establishing relations of equality with the former colonizer, based on mutual respect and parity in economic cooperation, built on common interest, and not as was the case previously when the Frenchman was prioritized over other investors in a context of unjustified privileges that no longer exist now.

It can be noted here the sovereignty of a single logic in dealing with everyone, which has turned the tables. The manipulation of the specifications by the French car manufacturer “Renault” led to the suspension of the Oued Tlelat factory’s activity in Oran, in contrast to the success of the Italian investor “Fiat” within the “Stellantis” consortium in honoring its specifications and establishing a fledgling car industry that promises the birth of a new era in this sensitive sector.