Lamamra labels French Ambassador's remarks about visa granting to Algerians as “unfortunate”

The Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ramtane Lamamra, has branded the statements made by France’s ambassador to Algeria, Bernard Emié, on selective visa granting to Algerians as “unfortunate.”

“If statements, made in circumstances I am unaware of, are likely to raise such issues, provoke comments, questions as well as many antagonist perceptions, it means that these statements have clearly been unfortunate,” Lamamra told the press on Thursday in Algiers after an encounter with the visiting Commissioner for European Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn.

For Mr Ramtane Lamamra, such untoward statements are “rather a lost-value than an added-value because our diplomatic profession requires us to favor, in all circumstances, statements that bring together and not those that divide,” as he put it.

In diplomacy matters, “which is our profession, we should not discriminate among citizens of the country in which we are accredited,” pointed out Mr Lamamra who emphasized that “once again, the main role of a diplomat, accredited by the Head of State, is to build bridges, promote exchanges, and shore up friendship and cooperation ties.”   

According to statements reported by Algerian media outlets, France’s ambassador to Algeria, Bernard Emié, asserted during a visit to the eastern city of Tizi Ouzou that “60% of visas issued by France’s Embassy are granted to inhabitants of the Kabylia region, and 50 % of Algerian students now in France come from this region.”  

Furthermore, and in a reply to a question on former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s much-controversial statements on Algeria, which is, according to the latter, “a danger to southern Europe following the slump in oil prices,” Mr Ramtane Lamamra underlined that “the interest shown through unfortunate clichés and caricatured descriptions by this French personality in Algeria raises some questions indeed.”

 “As it is not the first time this personality (namely Sarkozy) makes such bellicose statements against Algeria, we can really consider that he is a repeat offender,” he affirmed, stressing that “repeat offenders never improve when they repeat their acts.”

“I don’t think the Algerian public opinion should attach importance to such out-of-place statements,” Mr Lamamra underscored to this effect.