Ségolène Royal Criticizes Macron’s Belated Awakening To Algeria!

Ségolène Royal, the former socialist candidate for the French presidential elections, criticized French President Emmanuel Macron’s belated attempt to mend the strained atmosphere with Algeria, holding him responsible for the unprecedented deterioration of bilateral relations.

Ms. Royal said in a “tweet” on her “X” account on Monday, April 27, 2026, commenting on statements made by the French President on the same day: “Emmanuel Macron is attacking the madmen who seek to harm relations with Algeria, after discovering thousands of Algerian healthcare workers.”

The former Minister of Environment added, expressing surprise at the French President’s behavior, saying: “But he is the one who exacerbated bilateral relations! In a letter dated May 6, 2025, to former Prime Minister François Bayrou and former Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, which resulted in dire consequences for healthcare workers and companies.”

The president of the “France-Algeria Association” attached to her tweet a paragraph from a newspaper article discussing the directives given by Emmanuel Macron to his former Prime Minister, which stated: “Among the measures mentioned in the letter addressed to François Bayrou, the head of state specifically calls for the ‘official’ suspension of the 2013 agreement with Algeria ‘on visa exemption for holders of official and diplomatic passports’.”

The clipping added that “this measure has been frozen until now, following the expulsion of diplomats from both sides of the Mediterranean. Emmanuel Macron also wishes to refuse to grant short-stay visas to holders of official and diplomatic passports,” and that “the European Union should adopt this firm stance.”

Ms. Ségolène Royal’s tweet expresses a state of frustration on her part, as she observes the failure to restore the lost vitality of bilateral relations, despite the strenuous efforts she made during her visit to Algeria at the end of last January, where her pressure on Sébastien Lecornu’s government succeeded in pushing the French Interior Minister, Laurent Nuñez, to visit Algeria after he initially tried to impose preconditions.

That visit succeeded in dismantling a small portion of the mines that were poisoning bilateral relations, especially concerning the immigration file, but its impact remained limited, as the Algiers-Paris axis still suffers from coldness despite the frequent visits between the two countries, the latest of which was the visit of a delegation from the French employers’ movement “Medef,” headed by Patrick Martin, to Algeria, a visit that passed in unusual calm and away from media attention.

The secrets and backgrounds of the French President’s awakening regarding dealing with the escalating political and diplomatic crisis with Algeria have not been clarified, but his statement, which came at the end of the “Medef” delegation’s visit to Algeria, coincided with media platforms affiliated with the French far-right publishing newspaper articles calling on the French authorities to cut off communication with Algeria, such as “Le Figaro” and “Le Journal du Dimanche,” due to the Algerian side’s alleged inflexibility in responding to the concerns of the French side.