French Officials: “We Don’t Instructions To The Algerians, But We’re Following The Situation Closely”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Monday that French authorities took note of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s candidacy for the presidential elections on April 18th 2019, and hoped that the upcoming polls would be conducted under the best conditions, adding that France is following with keenness what is now happening in Algeria.

“We have learned of the candidacy of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and we wish that the forthcoming voting contest would be held in the best possible conditions,” Jean-Yves Le Drian said in his first foreign statement after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika submitted his candidacy file on Sunday at the Constitutional Council premises in Algiers.

“Algeria is in the process of determining its destiny and choosing its destination,” said for his part Gabriel Attal, the State Secretary to the Minister of National Education and Youth, who told French media that “the Algerians are not waiting for lessons or for someone teaching them what to do.”

He stated to this effect that “the Algerian people is sovereign and has its destiny in its own hands.”

“We are aware of what is unfolding in Algeria, but this does not mean that we have instructions to give to the Algerian people,” he further said.

In an interview on Sunday with Europe 1 radio, the French Minister of Agriculture Didier Guillaume also commented on the situation now prevailing in Algeria, where President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is facing unprecedented street protests.
While the French government has remained rather discreet since the beginning of the large-scale protest movement that is currently jolting Algeria in the run-up to its presidential election on April 18, the French minister made it clear that “France wants to reaffirm the sovereignty of the Algerian people”.
“The Algerian people will thus choose in all sovereignty.” “The situation prevailing in Algeria is similar to what happened in other countries, notably in Tunisia or Egypt,” noted Didier Guillaume.