What Fate Awaits The French Ambassador To Algeria?

The controversial moves of the French ambassador to Algeria, François Gouyette, brought new troubles to Algerian-French relations, which are experiencing multiple crises, the most recent of which is related to the report of the French historian, Benjamin Stora, on memory.

Over the past few weeks, François Gouyette was received by senior state officials, led by the Industry Minister, Ferhat Ait Ali Brahim, who manages one of the most sensitive files, which is the car manufacturing file. He met with politicians and party leaders, such as the Secretary-General of the National Liberation Front, Abou El-Fadl Baadji, Chairman of the Movement for the Society of Peace, Abderrazak Makri, and the Labor Party Chair, Louisa Hanoune, and other personalities as well.

The Algerian-French relations are experiencing one of their most difficult periods in nearly two years. Whenever signs of an agreement appear, a new problem rises to the surface and disturbed them, and the cause for poisoning bilateral relations this time is due to the “suspicious moves” of the Head of the French diplomacy’s representation in Algeria.

It is not the first time that a debate arose over the backgrounds of the French ambassador’s moves in Algeria, but this time the issue has taken on other dimensions, which means that the issue is likely to interact more in the next few days and weeks, throwing more trouble on the Algerian-Paris axis.

Today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is called upon to open an investigation into the practices of the French ambassador, and the parties and personalities who met with François Gouyette, in turn, are called upon to reveal what happened between them and this diplomat behind closed doors, as stated in the inquiry that the MP Kamal Belarbi addressed to the Minister, Sabri Boukadoum, then he published on Facebook.

El Djeich army magazine, which is the mouthpiece of the Ministry of National Defense, spoke in the editorial of its latest edition, about what it called the “suspicious” moves of some “diplomatic parties”, which “aimed to destabilize Algeria” then “the torrent reached the bottom”, as the saying goes, and that the message is no longer shrouded in mystery.

Algeria’s growing anger at Paris can also be remarked through the interview of the Brigadier General Bouzid Boufrioua, head of the combat engineering department at the ground forces command, with El Djeich Magazine, which included France’s call to “assume its historical responsibility for the nuclear tests” and its refrain from “hiding maps that would reveal the whereabouts of the remnants of these bombings”, and its commitment to compensate the victims of these experiences, who are still suffering until today, without obtaining their rights, despite Paris’s specific legislation about this file.

The accusations issued by El Djeich magazine and directed to foreign diplomats are among the rare cases, the last of which took place about two years ago, at the height of the “popular movement” when the army leadership at that time accused foreign parties of destabilizing Algeria.

The former French ambassador to Algeria, Xavier Driencourt, had previously experienced a situation similar to that of the current ambassador, during the last two years of his mission, and he was forced at that time to submit a request to French President Emmanuel Macron, to exempt him from his mission after he had difficulty performing the desired role.

After all this controversy caused by Francois Gouyette, will the “suspicious” French ambassador’s movements stop, or will he continue? How will the Algerian authorities respond if the warnings are ignored? What is the impact of this on the Algerian-French relations?