French president's visit to Algeria slated for December 19.

The French president François Hollande is due to pay a state visit to Algeria on December 19 and 20, reliable sources have revealed to Echourouk. Several issues are put on top of the agenda and will be thoroughly discussed between two presidents during this visit.

• The discussions will center around what has been billed as the “strategic cooperation roadmap” and dwell on several other issues pertaining to economy, culture, trade, investment and housing joint ventures.
• The French – Algerian negotiations slated a week after the celebrations of the historical events of December 11, will focus on the conclusions drawn up by the joint steering committees that started work since last September.
• The visit of François Hollande will be an opportunity to discuss the problem of visas entries and the movement of the people between the two countries as well as other issues linked to the situation of the Algerians living in France, the Malian and the Syrian crisis and the Maghreb Union, the same sources have indicated.
• Meanwhile, a smear campaign has been launched by some extremist lobbies from the far right party and the old guard of the former president Nicholas Sarkozy with the view to hampering the reconciliation process initiated by the new administration.
• But French official sources are resilient to move forward in the footsteps of their leader François Hollande who expressed his will to tackle with objectivity several issues regarded as taboos by the former leadership.
• The last silly and condemnable gesture made by the former French defence minister Gerard Longuet is regarded as a part of a whole campaign orchestrated by the French radicals in order to impede the initiatives conducted by Francois Hollande since his coming into power toward the normalization of the relationships between the two countries.