French Continued Provocations Prompt Algerian Parliament to Respond

The French parliament opened a new chapter in the Algerian-French conflict, by preparing a draft law calling for the unilateral abolition of the 1968 immigration agreement, a decision that would open the way for the Algerian parliament to take a counter-initiative that was welcomed by the Algerian authorities, after nearly two decades of preventing the Algerian legislative institution from undertaking any legislation targeting the French side.

The French draft, proposed by the parliamentary group of the right-wing Republicans LR party, came in a special political circumstance marked by the killing of the minor “Nahel” by a French cop in an operation that smelled racism or, in particular, “Algerophobia.”

The announcement of this draft law also coincided with an unprecedented racist attack on immigrant communities, especially the Algerians, led as usual by the extreme right and the traditional right, which seems to be competing with the extreme right in harming Algerians, and embodied in the statement of the head of the parliamentary group of the Republican LR Party, Bruno Retailleau, who did not hesitate about describing those who staged the protests in response to the brutal killing of the young boy Nael, as “savages”, in a blatant racist statement that may have bad consequences.

The right-wing extremists are trying to exploit the special circumstance in which France is living these days to pressurize the Elisabeth Borne government, to force it to cancel the 1968 agreement, even unilaterally, in a despicable provocation to Algeria, but the Algerian authorities have the cards that enable them to strike back, in case the French side slips to the quagmire that Algeria had previously warned about through unofficial channels.

Just as the French are trying to play on the legislative card to avoid embarrassing the executive authority represented by the Elysee Palace and President Emmanuel Macron personally, the Algerian Parliament, in turn, is eagerly awaiting the opportunity to activate an old renewed card, which is the colonial past card, which was stalled on more than one occasion.

Observers remember how the executive authorities in Algeria intervened in 2005, to bury the list of responses to the French parliament, which at that time had enacted the law of February 23, 2005, which glorifies colonial crimes in Algeria and in other countries that were victims of the crimes of brutal French colonialism.

On that day, the presidency, represented in the person of the former president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, intervened to reprimand the presidency of the lower house of parliament at the time, because foreign policy was the prerogative of the presidency and not the parliament, so the draft law was blocked while it was close to embodiment.

Since 2005, the draft law criminalizing French colonialism in Algeria remained stalled between the legislative authority and the executive authority, and each time the executive branch prevailed, which was able to impose its logic, on the pretext of preserving Algerian interests in France, but the project remained present, sometimes disappearing and returning other times, according to the nature and circumstances of relations between Algeria and Paris.

The Algerian-French relations reached this level of tension, due to the repeated French provocations, which took unexpected dimensions after the decree signed by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, related to the national anthem, and the resulting diplomatic clash due to the uncalculated statements of the head of the French diplomacy, Catherine Colonna. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the National Community Abroad, Ahmed Attaf, responded that conditions are now ripe for reviving the draft law criminalizing French colonialism, which has been stalled for nearly two decades.

In addition to the memory file, other cards are no less important, including the economy and energy, especially gas imports which the French side seeks to raise by 50%, a project that has remained suspended since Macron visited Algeria about a year ago.

The nature of the Algerian response depends on the developments at the level of the French state’s “coulisses” and the extent to which President Macron and his political circle can control the positions and behaviours of the traditional and the extreme right parties in dealing with issues of concern to Algeria, which has recently become a target for hostile lobbies rejecting the existence of equal relations between the two parties.