“The Snake’s Head” Appears Again to Strike Algerian-French Relations

As soon as a ray of the return of Algerian-French relations to stability began with talk about President Abdelmadjid Taboune’s visit to France since he received an invitation from his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, during the last visit of the French Interior Minister, Gérald Moussa Darmanin to Algeria, the former French ambassador, Xavier Driencourt, rushed to fuel the sedition again between the two countries.

In his contribution entitled “Behind the Algerian president’s visit to Paris, the issue of the 1968 immigration agreement?”, published (as usual when it comes to harming Algerian-French relations) in the French newspaper “Le Figaro”, Driencourt wrote; “the idea of a visit by the Algerian president to Paris seems to be taking shape, according to the always well-informed journalist, Catherine Nay. According to these indiscretions, the French ambassador to Algiers would have transmitted to President Tebboune a new invitation from his French counterpart to visit Paris”.

The recent exit of the French diplomat, came after the last meeting of the Algerian -French mixed committee in charge of the memory file in Constantine about a week ago, which showed developments in favour of the trend towards calming the memory wars related to the French occupation period, which is the opposite of what Driencourt, and the right-wing lobbies behind him, wished to witness.

“Gérald Darmanin, who visited Algiers in November, would have confirmed this invitation for the spring, probably after Ramadan. This visit planned for April, then May, then June 2023 was constantly postponed. This French insistence only underlines the importance that both Paris and Algiers attach to this project. But what interest does France have in such a visit? And what interest does Algeria, which has continued to insult Paris?”, the French diplomat wrote.

The former French ambassador to Algeria thinks that Macron, despite the “setbacks” that his country has suffered in its relationship with Algeria, insists on seeking, at all costs, rapprochement with it, as if he believes that he is the only one capable of achieving this, despite the failure of everyone who preceded him at the Elysee Palace, from Charles de Gaulle to François Mitterrand and after him Jacques Chirac. He (meaning Macron) wants to make this rapprochement a reality during the current five-year term whatever the cost, that is, despite the rejection, insults and criticism coming from the other side of the Mediterranean.

The author of the book “The Algerian Enigma” laments that this official French courtship towards Algeria is matched by a lack of cooperation in combating illegal immigration, in exchange for more visas for Algerians, despite Algeria’s rapprochement with Russia, and despite Algerian interference in French internal politics, as he claims, all this is in the hope that “Algeria will help us in the Sahel region.”

However, the contradiction in the French diplomat’s words is quickly revealed and exposed when he views President Tebboune’s visit to France as an interference in his country’s internal politics for circumstantial considerations, although no visit by a head of state to another country is considered interfering in internal affairs, and if we consider Driencourt’s point of view as acceptable then what about President Macron’s visit to Algeria last summer?

When Driencourt returns to delving into Algerian-French relations, his only and eternal problem remains the 1968 agreement on immigration, which he used as his Trojan horse, or the bait that the French right uses to appear in its many media platforms when it wants to harm Algerian-French relations.

Furthermore, the French diplomat believes that the continuation of the implementation of the 1968 agreement “will in itself constitute a tremendous victory for the Algerian president,” who “will try to score points in the memory file,” which recorded a development next week, with the announcement by the Algerian-French mixed committee of several measures represented in; Restituting part of the archives of the Ottoman era and some of the skulls of Algerian resistance fighters placed in French museums, in a scene that lacks human values.