Three Algerian Consuls Join France And The Return Of The Ambassador Is Postponed

Algeria’s consular representation in France has been completed with the appointment of three new consuls, among the 18 consulates available to Algeria and distributed across various French departments, in a development that indicates the calm currently characterizing bilateral relations, which nonetheless continue to suffer from a silent crisis embodied by the absence of the Algerian ambassador from Paris.

Based on the presidential decree signed on August 23 last year, and published in the latest issue of the Official Gazette No. 63 dated September 1, Mouna Youssefi was appointed consul in the city of Grenoble, France, Amina Nouisser at the consulate in Besançon, France, and Belkacem Bakka at the consulate in Bordeaux, France.

The three consuls began their work respectively on May 18, 2026, and the 30th and 31st of the same month, according to the aforementioned presidential decree, thus completing the circle of Algerian consuls in France, totaling 18 general consulates and consulates in France, following the crisis that affected bilateral relations more than two years ago following the decision of French President, Emmanuel Macron, to adopt a position considered provocative in Algeria regarding the Sahrawi issue.

Algerian consular representation in France is considered the highest among all countries, due to the size of the Algerian community residing in this country for well-known historical considerations, and it is distributed in the Île-de-France region, which includes Paris, Nanterre, Bobigny, and Pontoise, in addition to consulates in Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Strasbourg, Montpellier, Grenoble, Lille, Saint-Étienne, Toulouse, Metz, Nantes, Besançon, Nice and Saint-Étienne.

A retired diplomat, who spoke to “Echorouk”, attributed the delay in announcing the names of the new consuls compared to the date they joined their posts to waiting for official approval from the host country, which is a standard procedure, in addition to the fact that relations between Algeria and France were highly tense, which caused Paris to obstruct a number of consular officials appointed by Algeria to replace their counterparts whose terms had ended according to established procedures.

With the announcement of three consuls joining their posts in Algeria’s consulates in France, the representation is now complete in France, according to the retired diplomat, while the recall of other consuls whose terms have ended has been postponed for some time for considerations understood by the services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in order to maintain the provision of necessary and essential services to Algerian citizens in France who are estimated in the millions.

In the midst of this crisis, the French authorities had obstructed the joining of eight consuls to their posts in consulates in France, following the mutual expulsion of consular agents in April 2025, because the services of the former French Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, arrested an Algerian consular employee in Paris and imprisoned him outside the diplomatic and consular norms framed by the 1961 Vienna Convention.

It is known that the Algerian Foreign Ministry had expressed in previous positions during the worsening crisis between the two countries the lack of cooperation from French authorities on the diplomatic level, which caused obstruction to the work of the Algerian consular network in France, however things on this front regained their calm over time, as last March the Official Gazette published a decree talking about the appointment of new consuls in major French cities, Paris, Marseille and Strasbourg, noting that these three were transferred to other consulates in France to avoid colliding with new obstacles.

Despite the smoothness recorded in the appointment of new consuls in France compared to the past, bilateral relations still suffer from the crisis caused by French President, Emmanuel Macron, because the Algerian embassy in Paris remains without an ambassador since President Abdelmadjid Tebboune decided to withdraw the ambassador on July 31, 2024, in protest against Macron’s decision on the Western Sahara issue, despite the return of the French ambassador to his work in Algeria last May.