Macron Has A Historic Opportunity To Settle Sensitive Files With Algeria

French President Emmanuel Macron won the second round of the French presidential elections, by defeating his far-right rival, Marine Le Pen, by a comfortable margin, achieving a second term in office, as the second president to achieve this feat since former President Jacques Chirac in 2002.
Macron scored a clear victory over his opponent from the far-right with 58 percent of the total votes cast, for the second time in a row, compared to about 42 percent for his rival, the “Republican Party” candidate, knowing that the two candidates had previously faced each other five years ago, and Le Pen lost the race.
The second term is the last for Macron in the Elysee Palace, according to the requirements of the French election law, which means that the previous framework of the “Rothschild Bank” has become more free from the constraints of accounts to preserve his political future, which in 2027 will become his successor.
Since the inmate of the Elysee Palace announced his candidacy for a second term, no statement has been issued by the Algerian side expressing its intentions to support any of the candidates. Rather, Algeria distanced itself from running in the elections before the first round, and this was manifested by its reservations about receiving the French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, so as not to count on any of the Elysee Palace contestants, but the results of the first stage of the race decided, albeit implicitly, the Algerian position, by standing in the way of the far-right candidate, in the interest of Macron.
This position was demonstrated by the call of the Dean of the Paris Mosque, Shams El-Din Hafeez, not to remain neutral and vote in favor of Macron, a call that did not come out of nowhere, as it was announced just two days after the visit of the French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, To Algeria, as well as another indication, which is that the Paris Mosque is affiliated with Algeria in financing and in appointing its dean, which makes its positions accountable in one way or another to the Algerian state.
After Macron won the second term, the question on the lips of many in Algeria has become: Will the re-elected president dare to take bold steps and open sensitive files that he was unable to open in the first term, regarding issues that concern Algeria? Or will he continue his slogan for the next five years?
The former diplomat, Mustapha Zaghlache, believes that continuity will be the slogan of the re-elected president in his second term: “Macron is known to have been supported by some financial circles in the 2017 elections as well as in the last elections. I think he has a margin of maneuver governed by the lines drawn by those circles for him.”
As for the Algerian-French relations, Zaghlache said, in a statement to Echorouk, that bilateral relations are governed by continuity by virtue of historical, social, economic and commercial ties. Algeria cannot abandon these relations, nor can Paris ignore those ties.
With regard to the issue of memory, the speaker adds, it is possible to return to the report prepared by the historian Benjamin Stora, at the request of the French presidency, as he talks about gradual solving the mysteries of this thorny file.
Zaghlache says: “I think that the Algerian side is aware of the sensitivity of the file of the ramified memory to other files, namely the archive, the remains of the martyrs and the repercussions of the nuclear explosions… However, Macron’s re-election would contribute to progress on this path, which is in the interest of the stability of bilateral relations which was under a lot of stress.”
Despite this, the former diplomat does not see much progress in the field of memory, because French positions on this file cannot cross some lines, regardless of the background of the new president, whether he is leftist, right-wing or other political sensitivity.
Macron, says Zaghlache, is doomed to work for his “France Forward” party to achieve a new victory in the parliamentary elections next June, so that he can work with great comfort away from the pressures of the extreme right, and this requires taking positions that preserve his political interests.
Another issue that remains subject to anticipation in the French position is the Saharawi issue, and here the former diplomat expects continuity to prevail, but Algeria insists that the French position be supportive of international legitimacy represented in self-determination of the Saharawi people, in the meetings of the UN Security Council, and contributing to the decolonization of the territory so as not to lose face with a country, the size of Algeria.