Hate Statements Against Algeria: Former French Ambassador Follows in Driencourt’s Footsteps

The stances and orientations of the French ambassadors who have served in Algeria since President Emmanuel Macron took office reveal that they share a common political and ideological background—that of the French far right, which is hostile to Algeria. This casts doubt on Macron’s intention to build serious and credible relations with Algeria.

The rare and unexpected media appearances of François Gouyette, the French ambassador to Algeria from 2020 to 2023, confirm the conviction that the majority of French diplomats who have served at the French embassy in Algeria are steeped in far-right political ideology. This fact underscores once again that French authorities still view Algeria as a former colony, a sentiment exemplified by a serious statement made by Gouyette last weekend on Radio France Inter.

François Gouyette was asked about the two conflicting positions within the French government regarding the management of the crisis with Algeria: the conciliatory stance expressed by the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, and the “iron fist” approach imposed by former Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau on the outgoing government of François Bayrou. He did not hesitate to declare his support for Retailleau’s approach.

The retired diplomat, who left the French embassy in Algiers in 2023 upon retirement, said: “Former Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau is responsible for the security of French citizens, and that’s why he brought up the issue of Algerians who received orders to leave French territory, a matter that remains under discussion.”

François Gouyette, unlike his predecessor Xavier Driencourt, who is not accustomed to press interviews, considered the conflict between the Ministries of the Interior and Foreign Affairs to be rooted in the past and history, dating back to the era of French colonisation in Algeria. “Before Algeria’s independence in 1962, many considered that it is the Interior Ministry which ran Algeria, but it’s not the the case, and although the situation has changed, it still cannot remain detached from the issue of immigration and visas, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs remains concerned with international relations,” he said, referring to a similar situation that occurred between the two ministries in the 1990s, when Charles Pasqua was Minister of the Interior.

The retired diplomat, whose wife is Algerian, defended the French president’s stance on the Western Sahara issue, stating that France has always stood with the Moroccan regime, a position he described as nothing new. He added that this same stance is adopted and defended by figures on the French right and far right, as well as by the controversial former ambassador, Xavier Driencourt.

In another interview with the newspaper “Le Journal du Dimanche,” published on its website last Wednesday, François Gouyette, who worked in the office of former minister Jean-Pierre Chevènement, defended the denunciation of the 1968 immigration agreement—a demand insisted upon by the French right and far right—said: “It now seems necessary to conduct a comprehensive review, as the conditions under which the rules governing the movement and work of Algerians in France were established have changed radically, in a context where labor migration has become a significant minority.”

Previously, François Gouyette’s undisclosed positions revealed that they are very close to being identical to those of the former French ambassador to Algeria, Xavier Driencourt, who has become a theorist of the extreme right regarding relations with Algeria. This casts doubt on the seriousness of the French authorities, headed by Emmanuel Macron, in establishing stable relations with Algeria, because they know that the extreme right has a historical animosity towards Algeria, dating back to the period of French occupation, given that this movement grew up in the lap of colonial thought, which considered Algeria to be France, and France to be Algeria,” as François Mitterrand used to say when he was Minister of Justice and Interior during the War of Liberation.