These Are The Prospects For French-Algerian Relations After Le Drian’s Departure

Algerian-French relations are looking forward to the role that the new Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna, can play in restoring calm to the Algiers-Paris axis, and the extent to which she will be able to bear this heavy burden, after the departure of what was described as the “fireman,” former Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, from the Quai D’Orsay Palace.

Le Drian is considered the manipulator and the owner of a calm personality, the French official who knew how to preserve the “appeasement” in the Algerian-French relations, even in their most difficult periods, especially the days of the “Hirak or popular movement”, when the arrows were directed at Paris by practicing “meddling” in the internal affairs of Algeria, and the secondly as it was most dangerous; it was represented in the repercussions of the “irresponsible” statements of the French president about the Algerian nation last September, which led to Algeria summoning of its ambassador, Mohamed Antar Daoud, from Paris for consultations.

As for the newcomer to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she is considered one of the non-prominent faces in the French political scene in recent years, even if she has been in responsibilities at the level of the diplomatic apparatus of her country for many years, as she has never held a position at the level it is today, and it was the last responsibility she occupied it, namely the French ambassador to the British capital, London.

Those familiar with diplomatic affairs in France have read in Macron’s assignment to Catherine Colonna, the portfolio of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an attempt by the first man in the Elysee Palace, to put his hand on this sensitive sector, five years after his first full tenure (2017/2022), during which the former Minister of Foreign Affairs was able, Le Drian, to extend his vision to her, in a way that the fingerprints of Macron, whose country’s constitution authorizes him to formulate his country’s foreign policy, are absent.

Le Drian differs from his successor at the Quai D’Orsay Palace, in that he is a politicized diplomat (belonging to the Socialist Party), which is what made his long experience and political acumen overpower the president of his country, unlike the new foreign minister, who is a technical and non-partisan diplomat, and will give Macron help, on extending his influence over his country’s foreign policy, according to what the former diplomat and expert in the affairs of the Sahel and Sahara region, Ahmed Laraq, told ”Echorouk”.

And if Le Drian seemed to have maintained bridges of communication between Algeria and Paris in difficult times through his visits to Algeria, but he was not popular from the perspective of Algerian diplomacy, as the diplomat said, because of the maneuvers he carried out in the Sahel region, especially in Mali and Chad, adverse practices that the Algerian side did not look at with satisfaction, as they often clashed with the Algerian point of view in resolving the crises of that region.

As for the prospects for improving Algerian-French relations under the new minister, the former ambassador believes that the issue is related to Macron’s perception of the course of these relations, because the French president will restore the initiative in his country’s foreign policy.

Le Drian, was the one who influenced the president and not the other way around.
Given the nature of the formation of the new minister’s personality, which remains diplomatic more technical than political, this would help President Macron on the one hand, to crystallize a certain vision for the advancement of bilateral relations, according to Ahmed Kara, who expects the French president to fix what he spoiled during his tenure.

On the other hand, the diplomat does not see radical changes in the French positions on some issues that concern Algeria, such as the Palestinian issue as well as the Western Sahara issue.