Would Algerian President Tebboune’s visit to France be postponed?
BY: Hana Saada
ALGIERS- The visit of the president of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, to France, originally slated for 2 and 3 May, has been postponed until a further notice due to the situation prevailing in the European country. The trip has been the subject of negotiations between Paris and Algiers over the past few days.
Recalled at the beginning of February following Amira Bouraoui affair, which caused a new diplomatic spat between Algeria and France, the Algerian ambassador to France, Saïd Moussi, returned to his post in Paris on Wednesday March 29. The return was followed by a meeting between Ambassador Saïd Moussi and the Secretary General of the Quai d’Orsay (the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
While everything was going better between France and Algeria, the illegal exfiltration of Amira Bouraoui from Tunis to Paris once again weakened relations between the two countries. France’s Emmanuel Macron went to Algeria at the end of last summer. He had left North Africa after having jointly signed with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune a declaration to revive relations between the two countries. However, a new episode of tense relations between Algeria and France sparked as French diplomats and security personnel at the French embassy in Tunis secretly and illegally exfiltrated Amira Bouraoui, despite the existence of an Algerian court subpoena against her.
As a reaction, French President Emmanuel Macron, on his part, tackled, on Monday, February 27 during a speech devoted to his country’s African policy, Amira Bouraoui affair, claiming to have taken “a firedamp blow”.
“There was a controversy over the return to France of a Franco-Algerian from Tunisia, with also a lot of things that were told and a speech that was built”, nuanced President Macron. A posture that shows the embarrassment of the head of state, who did not even dare to pronounce the name of Amira Bouraoui.
“I think there are a lot of people who have an interest in what we have been doing for years now with Algeria not succeeding,” Macron argued without giving further details.
“Well I have a very simple message: I will continue, this is not the first firedamp, I have already had it but we must continue there also humbly, pragmatically,” he said.
Noting that ties between the two countries had been frosty since autumn 2021, but warmed when Macron visited Algiers last August.
They witnessed unprecedented tensions after the provocative and irresponsible statements uttered by the Elysee Palace inmate Emmanuel Macron, who questioned the existence of an Algerian nation before the brutal French occupation of Algeria in 1830.
In his gaffe, France’s President Emmanuel Macron made critical remarks about Algeria, during a meeting with descendants of Harkis (people who fought with the French army against Algerian revolutionists).
Macron’s comments sparked anger among the Algerian officials and people. The Algerian Presidency of the Republic, which announced that it had summoned Algeria’s ambassador to Paris, Mohamed Antar Daoud, for consultations, took a second decision to close Algerian airspace to the French military warplanes, in response to these irresponsible and provocative statements by the French President Emmanuel Macron.
