The French Ambassador Xavier Driencourt Empties His Bag of Secrets in Algeria
The former French Ambassador to Algeria, Xavier Driencourt, emptied his bag of secrets he had never before spoken about regarding Algeria, in a lengthy interview that lasted nearly two hours. Through this, he revealed Algeria’s special significance for France, based on testimonies from influential French political figures he worked with, who managed relations with Algeria from behind the scenes.
Driencourt, who served as ambassador to Algeria for about eight years across two terms, revealed a deep-seated resentment towards Algeria by presenting facts and attempting to cloak them in misleading analyses. The decisions he claimed to have made when he was ambassador there confirmed that the man is obsessed with targeting Algeria, its diaspora, and its interests.
The French Ambassador stated in the program “The New Governor,” prepared by the politician and former MP, Paul-Marie Coûteaux, last week, that when he left his position as ambassador to Algeria in 2012, the three consulates (Algiers, Oran, Annaba) issued 220,000 visas to Algerians. When he returned to the same position five years later (in 2017), he was surprised by the number doubling to 430,000, and at that time, Bernard Emié was the ambassador.
Driencourt confirms that when he returned to work as ambassador in Algeria at the suggestion of his predecessor Bernard Bajolet, he sought guidance from both the then Foreign Minister (2017) Jean-Yves Le Drian and Interior Minister Gérard Collomb regarding handling the visa file. “I was told to do my best, and then, in coordination with the two ministries, I proceeded to reduce the number year after year. In the first year, I reduced it from 430,000 visas to 270,000, and continued the reduction to 250,000 in the following year,” and he hinted that he was doing this with his personal diligence.
The retired diplomat revealed on this occasion that the three French consulates currently issue 200 visas per day, compared to 900 visas for Spain. He knows, as he stated, that all those who obtain visas from Spanish consulates come to France, according to his claim.
In the midst of the interview, Driencourt cited a testimony from a prominent official in the French Foreign Ministry, the former Secretary-General of the Quai d’Orsay, André Ross, who said that Algeria is considered a country of great importance to France, alongside the European giant, Germany. This fact helps observers understand the frenzy that has gripped many politicians in Paris since Algeria decided to develop a foreign policy based on parity with the former colonizer.
The veteran diplomat admitted that Algeria managed to turn the tables on France in the unprecedented crisis afflicting bilateral relations. He said that “Algeria now controls us (L’Algérie nous tient),” and he likened President Tebboune’s dealings with France to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s dealings with Germany. He attributed this to the 6 or 7 million Algerians residing in France, who have become a pressure card against the French authorities, citing at the same time the case of the Franco-Algerian writer, Boualem Sansal.
In a major fallacy, he said that France left established institutions in Algeria, yet they were not utilized as they should have been, attempting to whitewash the image of French colonialism compared to its English counterpart. He gave the example of a country like Malaysia, which was under British colonialism, and where he had also served as ambassador.
He said: “France left institutions in Algeria, a tax system, a treasury system, and administrative divisions, while British colonialism left in India, Malaysia, some African countries, Australia, and New Zealand a ‘way of thinking,’ meaning they rule from behind the scenes and leave the sultan or king in the forefront, with the exception of Morocco, which was merely a French protectorate.”
However, he ignored that French colonialism was the most foolish colonialism, as it ruled the colonized countries with an iron fist and fire, and adopted a brutal settler policy, as in the Algerian case, based on depriving Algerians of education, wealth, and the management of their affairs. Its aim was to settle incoming populations who monopolized all the wealth of the indigenous people, and then it accused Algerians of failing to develop their country.
As one of the symbols of the circles dreaming of French Algeria, he reiterated the French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement in 2021, which said that Algeria did not exist before 1830, “it was merely a trading post (Comptoir), there was an Eyalet (dependent on the Ottoman Empire),” which was to justify the occupation and whitewash its criminal practices.
Driencourt claimed that there was an intention by the Algerian authorities to eradicate the French language as a culture, language, and economy in favor of the English language, with the complicity of Americans and British, who have started offering scholarships to students for study. He expressed surprise at the existence of only one French high school in Algeria compared to 45 in the Kingdom of Morocco.
