French Right Demands EU Halt Negotiations With Algeria!

European MP and second-in-command of France’s right-wing “Les Républicains” party, François-Xavier Bellamy, revealed that the silence surrounding Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau for weeks, as he stopped attacking Algeria, was a result of a request from French authorities, hoping for Sansal’s release. He also revealed that Retailleau would meet with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday to clarify matters regarding the management of the crisis with Algeria.
François-Xavier Bellamy stated: “The Interior Minister, and generally in the European Parliament (…), were asked to remain silent (regarding Algeria), otherwise the fate of Boualem Sansal’s release would be risked, which we were informed was imminent.” This is the second such statement in less than a week from “Les Républicains,” following the tense statements made by party leader Bruno Retailleau last weekend.

The French Interior Minister had announced the end of the undeclared truce with Algeria last Friday, when he said in press statements: “The diplomacy of good intentions has failed… We must change our tone and rely on the balance of power chosen by the Algerian government itself,” he claimed.

As symbols of the French right freed themselves from the political constraints imposed on them in dealing with Algeria, the threads of the conspiracy against Algeria from within the European Parliament began to unravel. On Monday evening, the vice-president of “Les Républicains” demanded, in a statement to Agence France-Presse (AFP), that the European Union make the release of French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal a “fundamental condition” for the negotiations expected to begin soon between Algeria and Brussels.

Like his party leader, the European MP strongly criticized his country’s stance in dealing with the escalating crisis with Algeria, considering it “negative,” noting that: “What we are witnessing are the consequences of a form of submission (of France to Algeria),” while commenting on the positions of the Élysée Palace and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying that they preferred to return to “a position of surrender and negativity, which will contribute to tarnishing France’s reputation, not only before Algeria, but on the international stage in general.”

It is known that Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot did not delay much in responding to Bruno Retailleau’s demands. He expressed his complete rejection of what his government colleague said in a tweet on the “X” platform, which read: “There is no diplomacy of good feelings, nor diplomacy of resentment. There is only diplomacy.” Although he did not target Retailleau by name, the response was clear to the phrase “the diplomacy of good intentions has failed.”

Based on the statement by the European MP from “Les Républicains,” Retailleau will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday to discuss the position the French government should adopt, given the Algerian side’s adherence to the sovereignty of judicial decisions in Sansal’s case, and thus its rejection of repeated French demands in this regard.

The leader of “Les Républicains,” who also holds the portfolio of the Ministry of Interior, demands the use of a balance of power logic with Algeria, due to the issue of migrants and the cancellation or revision of the 1968 agreement. These demands are rejected by the French President and the Foreign Minister, who consider them outside the Interior Minister’s powers, which puts Retailleau’s future in François Bayrou’s government at a real test.