French Media: “If Nunez’s Visit to Algeria Succeeds, a New Dynamic Will Emerge”

“The Interior Minister is travelling to Algeria on Monday and Tuesday. At the risk of returning empty-handed, he can count on his good personal relations with the Algerian authorities. His profile is opposite to Bruno Retailleau’s,” the French newspaper L’Opinion published in its February 15th edition, announcing the visit of French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez to Algeria.

“L’Opinion” was not the only French media to discuss Bruno Retailleau’s visit. The headline on the state-run television channel France 24, in its interview on Monday, February 16th, with geopolitical analyst researcher Adlene Mohammedi, read in bold: “What Laurent Nunez is doing clearly demonstrates the failure of Retailleau’s method.”

In response to the journalist’s question about whether Bruno Retailleau’s hardline stance had damaged Franco-Algerian relations, the researcher replied, “What Laurent Nunez is doing now clearly demonstrates the failure of the Retailleau method. First, because talking about weakness and strength when it comes to a bilateral relationship is utterly pointless, he was completely out of his depth. He was the Interior Minister and was handling diplomatic matters when he wasn’t supposed to be. Like the French right wing, he was focusing on the infamous 1968 agreements, which are often wrongly considered a kind of Algerian privilege. In reality, this agreement primarily regulated Algerian immigration since the 1960s.

Mohammedi noted that, unlike his predecessor, Retailleau, Nunez doesn’t address this issue, “because he is well aware that it’s pointless. It doesn’t change anything at all in relations between the two countries, including regarding migration flows.”
The researcher added that Laurent Nunez’s approach differs radically from that of Bruno Retailleau; “The difference between the two is that Retailleau wanted to play political games and show that the right wing could be firm on certain diplomatic issues. Moreover, Édouard Philippe is doing the same thing.

He will emphasise the 1968 agreements in his campaign. The French right wing has shown itself to be very weak, very deaf, and very blind to everything that has happened in the Middle East, to the humiliations suffered at the hands of its supposed American ally, or even to the Ukrainian issue. Algeria ultimately remained the last issue where it could demonstrate its resolve”.

The French newspaper Le Monde, in an article published on Tuesday, February 17, titled “Interior Minister Laurent Nunez in Algeria to Try to Ease Franco-Algerian Tensions,” stated that the French Interior Minister was travelling to Algeria “without claiming to have resolved all outstanding issues, but his visit itself carries strong symbolic significance.”

The newspaper added, “Laurent Nunez, who succeeded Bruno Retailleau at the Interior Ministry in the Place Beauvau, has distinguished himself with a different approach from the hardline stance adopted by his predecessor towards the Algerian authorities.”

The newspaper noted that this visit is of great importance, given that the French Interior Minister is “one of the most qualified officials to discuss security issues, which are a priority for both sides.”

During his visit to Marseille on Friday, February 13, Nunez had previously stated, regarding his upcoming visit to Algeria: “I will participate in a working meeting to discuss all security issues of concern to both France and Algeria. These include drug trafficking, illegal immigration, and several other topics that I will address with my Algerian counterpart and our technical teams.”

L’Opinion, for its part, addressed the security aspect of relations between Algeria and Paris. According to its sources, cooperation between the two countries resumed last fall, shortly after Laurent Nunez was appointed Interior Minister.
Therefore, the newspaper added that if this visit yields positive results, “it could revitalise this dynamic.”

“Algerians are waiting for Laurent Nunez to present his approach to the bilateral relationship,” said Hasni Abidi, director of the Centre for Research on the Maghreb and the Middle East (CERMAM), to the newspaper. “His approach is completely different from that of his predecessor.”

Abidi explained that “Bruno Retailleau engaged in a genuine confrontation with the Algerian authorities, primarily for domestic political consumption in France. Laurent Nunez, on the other hand, is a man of action; he doesn’t politicise the relationship.”
Regarding the reason behind French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez agreeing to visit Algeria without preconditions, Le Monde suggests that the mediation of former socialist minister Ségolène Royal may have contributed to this change in Nunez’s tone.

The newspaper also reported that Royal, upon her return to France from her visit to Algeria, immediately following her election as head of the France-Algeria Association, where she met with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on January 27, met with the French Interior Minister at his request and provided him with information to help him prepare for his visit.