French Businessmen Pressurize Macron Into Correcting His Mistakes

Despite the escalating political and diplomatic crisis between Algeria and France, the French are desperately striving to maintain their influence, which has significantly declined in recent years, especially since the Elysée Palace’s resident, Emmanuel Macron, decided to abandon the policy of balance in his country’s relations with the Maghreb countries, by openly siding with the Moroccan regime.

While highly credible leaks indicated that Algeria decided to consider the French ambassador to Algeria, Stéphane Romatet, who joined Paris last April at the invitation of his president, persona non grata, the latter will chair a meeting next week comprising representatives of the body representing French businessmen, “Medef”, to discuss ways to help French companies maintain their interests in the promising Algerian market, as described by the president of the “France-Algeria Association”, Ms. Ségolène Royal, who visited Algeria about a week ago.

The French Business Movement “Medef” views Algeria as a pivotal country in France’s economic sphere of influence, due to historical considerations, geographical proximity, and geopolitical dimensions.

This has led it to work towards exploiting the recent calm in bilateral relations, which cannot be considered, by any means, an overcoming of an unprecedented crisis that intensified since French President Emmanuel Macron decided to put all his eggs in the basket of the Moroccan regime in July 2024, when he considered the so-called “autonomy plan” in Western Sahara as the sole solution to this issue that has lasted for nearly five decades.

This meeting comes about a week after the meeting in Algeria between Ségolène Royal and Michel Bisac, director of the French-Algerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which concluded with strong warnings about the risks of France losing its remaining interests, at a time when competing European countries such as Italy, Germany, and Spain are advancing to share the Algerian market pie.

Regarding the background of this meeting, which media reports referred to, Mr. Abdelwahab Ben Khalif, a professor of political science at the University of Algiers, believes that France is experiencing a major economic crisis, contributed to by many factors, including the Russian-Ukrainian war, which shook the entire European economy, including the German economy.

This has compelled France to preserve its remaining nearby investment markets outside the European continent, of which the Algerian market remains the closest and strongest on the southwestern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.

According to Mr. Ben Khalif, in communication with “Echorouk”, French companies have paid the price for many of the politicians’ mistakes on the northern shore of the Mediterranean, because the Algerian market was, until recently, a zone of influence for French companies, before it became out of play due to the outbreak of a political crisis that had significant dimensions and repercussions on all French interests. Therefore, it is now striving by all means to return to the pre-crisis stage, by pressuring the Elysée Palace to correct the situation.

Although Mr. Abdelwahab Ben Khalif attributed part of the responsibility for what is happening to relations between Algeria and Paris to the French far-right, he did not overlook the significant role played by some of Emmanuel Macron’s ill-considered stances in raising the level of tension between the two countries to this level, which has become close to a complete rupture.

The ball remains in the French court, as the professor of international relations at the University of Algiers said, who must take the first step as he is the affected party and also the cause of the crisis, as Ms. Ségolène Royal also recently reiterated. However, the question observers are asking is: Has Macron left a way back after his provocation of Algeria reached unprecedented levels?