French Minister Exposes Right-Wing Lies About Development Aid To Algeria

The National Assembly, the lower chamber of the French Parliament, witnessed a heated debate on economic and development relations between France and Algeria, where a French minister confronted what he described as “false claims” made by the extreme right about development aid to Algeria, and exposed the falsity and falsehood of the figures presented that politicians belonging to it claimed that their country provided it to Algeria.

This debate, raised by MP Michel Guéhenno of the right-wing National Rally, was contained in a report dated March 27, 2025, seen by “Echorouk”, which revealed blatant attempts to exploit figures and statistics to portray a misleading picture of the relationship between the two countries, as well as fictitious French aid to Algeria.

But the decisive response came from Minister Delegate to the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, in charge of Francophonie and International Partnerships, Tani Mohamed Soueilhi, who refuted these allegations with clear figures.
The French government official said: “They are spreading a lot of lies about our relationship with Algeria to exploit the current crisis!” He explained that “bilateral aid to Algeria amounted to 136 million euros in 2023, but 94 percent of them are scholarships for Algerian students studying in France, not direct financial support to Algeria.” “There is no aid planned for Algeria in 2025, either from the state budget or through the French Development Agency,” Souilihy emphasized.

In his response to MP Guéhenno, the minister added: “Scholarships are part of the policy of attracting talent to our universities and serve the French economy and research, as these students learn our language and values, strengthening our relations with future Algerian elites.” In response to Guéhenno’s “Is it true?”, MP Sabrina Sebai said: “We should stop fantasizing.”

Hervé Berville and Karim Bencheikh applauded the minister’s speech, while the far right seemed determined to continue its hostile campaign against Algeria through comments made by Guéhenno, who apparently did not like the French government member’s response to his allegations, which turned out to be false and tendentious.