Xavier Driencourt Acknowleges France’s Loss Of Influence In Algeria

An interesting and exciting debate that took place between the former French member of the European Parliament of Algerian origin, Karim Zeribi, and the controversial former French ambassador to Algeria, Once, and the background to it, as well as the specificity of Algerian-French relations, which have witnessed chronic instability for decades.
Why do you always write about Algeria with hatred? We have seen this in your book “The Algerian Enigma” as well as in your interviews and contributions to many right-wing media platforms in France? asked Karim Zeribi, a French politician of Algerian origin, to the French diplomat. The latter responded with an attack: “The Algerians use memory in their disputes with the French side and even falsify history,” he claims.
The former French ambassador to Algeria went on to defend his country’s positions. He says that the French authorities, represented by their president Emmanuel Macron, have worked hard since his arrival at the Elysee Palace to find solutions to the memory crisis, but the Algerian side has not responded to this approach.
Xavier Driencourt was referring to the duo of Benjamin Stora on the French side and Abdelmadjid Chikhi on the Algerian side, which, as is well known, ended in failure, since we know that Benjamin Stora presented his report to the French president and did not tell the Algerians what it contained.
The debate contributed to the decline of the French presence in Algeria on more than one level, and the economic dimension was the most painful aspect for France, which lost many of its strongholds in its former colony to other competitors such as China, Spain, France and Turkey, a fact that the French ambassador regretted.
As for the reasons for this decline, the retired diplomat believes that they are many and varied, and that there are structural reasons. “I visited French factories in Algeria and found Italian equipment,” says Xavier Driencourt. T
The retired diplomat admits that it has become difficult for French institutions to keep up with developments in Algeria. Moreover, some French institutions have begun to focus on big deals, such as armaments, and have neglected the smaller ones, which has allowed other parties to fill the void in this respect”.
The former ambassador also believes that China knew how to take advantage of the opportunities available, in addition to the Algerian trend, which was clear in taking advantage of the developments taking place on the international scene, in which China is emerging as a rising power moving at a rapid pace, but without forgetting the historical considerations that witnessed the relations between Algeria and Beijing, which return, as is well known, to the first beginnings of independence.
Here, Karim Zeribi took the opportunity to attack the former French ambassador, saying that the French are eager to export to Algeria, and in return they do not want to set up factories there, like the Renault company, for example, which, despite the fact that Algerians consume its products (cars) three times more than the Kingdom of Morocco. However, it preferred to set up its factory in Morocco.
According to the former French ambassador, the French company began talks with the Algerian party in 2007 to establish a factory in Algeria, but the latter did not offer sufficient incentives to motivate the French company. Moreover, the retired diplomat adds, the first and last decision belongs to the company and not to the French authorities, as is the case with other companies active in the automotive industry, such as Peugeot and Citroen.
Despite the problems of bureaucracy and the complexity of transferring money to France, Driencourt said, there are successful French companies in Algeria operating in many sectors, such as the food industry and some other services.
In response to his accusation of continuous attacks on the 1968 immigration agreement, the former French ambassador said, “I asked the two parties to sit down at the dialogue table to negotiate the agreement, and I did not ask for it to be suspended by another side, because the agreement goes beyond ordinary laws, and this makes other laws related to immigration not useful as far as the Algerians are concerned”.