Macron Sustains More Criticism From Algerian Politicians

The biting criticism of the French President, Emmanuel Macron, by Algerian politicians continues, following the recent statements he made in his interview with the news magazine “Jeune Afrique”.
The turn this time came from the head of the Movement for the Society of Peace, (MSP) Abderazak Makri, as well as the political activist, Karim Tabou who heads the unlicensed Social Democratic Union Party.

Makri called on the Algerian authorities to officially respond to the French President, and wrote on his page on the social network, Facebook: “If the redress does not take place immediately, then the state will become a failure and it will join the colonized in one piece,” regarding his comment on the statements issued by Macron, which included support for President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, a support, which was considered by a host of politicians as a “poisoned gift”.

“This President (meaning Macron) is behaving with a crude colonial mentality, and he considers Algeria incapable of leading itself by itself,” added Makri, noting that “the creeping French presence in our country has not disappeared since independence, through the Gaullist strategy”.

“We thought that the movement liberated us forever and that it would embody the popular will and our final sovereignty over our country, so our political, economic and social crises deepen, and there are cultural dangers that were not taken into account,” stressed Makri.

He went on to say, “The majority within society is still resisting bad colonial intentions. Is it not time for patriots within the state, society and people of conscience to move to protect the country as their predecessors did in the face of brutal colonialism?”

In a lengthy message that Karim Tabou wrote on his own Facebook page, he accused the French President of “political hypocrisy”, and wrote: “Behind this position lies the insidious idea that the countries of the South in general, and Algeria in particular, are politically fragile and unfit for democracy,” while stressing the need to halt the French tutelage over its former colonies.

The head of the Rally for Culture and Democracy, Mohsen Belabes, was for his part the first to unleash sharp criticism of Macron’s position and considered his statements as “giving lessons” in democracy and the governance of the former colonies of France, as he wrote in his post: “(Macron) has allowed himself to distribute legitimacy certificates to the leaders of the so-called “Indigènes” peoples that we represent, stressing that, “Post-colonial France is part of our problem in addition to being part of the very painful past of Algeria and Africa”.

The strongest statement made against Macron is the one issued by the Acting Secretary General of the National Mujahideen Organization (ONM), Mohand Omar Benhadj, who called on politicians in France to deal with Algeria as a peer, and not as a dependent state, stressing that pending the establishment of a balanced cooperation between Algeria and Paris, the latter ought to retreat from its intricate stances towards colonialism, and undertake the reversal of the disgraceful 23rd February 2005 law, which glorifies the heinous French colonial practices in France’s former colonies.