Algeria’s decision to expel 12 French consulate staff appears to have been paid to hopes of an imminent settlement between the two countries.
The order was accused of joining two other Algerians and the opposition opposition in Paris a year ago in response to accusations filed in France against Algerian consuls officers on Friday.
Algiers chose to view the arrest of an official as “violating the immunity and privileges associated with his (diplomatic) function.”
According to the official APS of Algerian state news agency, “This unprecedented judicial case… did not come by chance. Its purpose is to take away the reboot of bilateral relations agreed by the two heads of state.”
The call between French President Emmanuel Macron and Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebuune at the end of March was the first sign of a possible reconciliation after months of crisis.
Since then, a week ago Macron’s Foreign Minister Jean Noel Barrotto visited Algiers.
However, this dramatic escalation – the biggest expulsion of French consul staff since Algeria’s independence in 1962 – suggests that anti-French voices lie in the ascendant of the government of Algiers.
Reading between the lines, it is clear that the real target of Algerian fire is not Macron, but an element of his government.
Retero – the right-wing conservatives with ambitions for the next presidential election in France – have gained a reputation for their hard-line declarations on immigration, law and order, and relations with Algeria.
Algiers claims he is looking at Retaillo’s hands in the arrest of a consul official. It implicitly accused the Home Minister of Finance of trying to undermine Macron’s more “equal” approach to the crisis in relations.
Importantly, several of the 12 officials ordered were from the French Ministry of Home Affairs and therefore were subordinates of Retero.
Algerian commentators regularly attack French rights and far rights as they have excessive influence in Paris and are trying to poison relationships.
However, they have recently become more generous towards Macron, despite it being him who personally caused the crisis by declaring a strategic change to Algeria’s longtime rival Morocco last July.
Since then, the collapse of relations has been the worst since Algerian independence.
Trade and intelligence sharing suffers, and bitter words are being exchanged around anti-French Algerian internet influencers.
France accused Algeria of refusing to reclaim its deported people, and Algeria accused France of harassing diplomats.
The worst sign of the breakdown was the arrest of Franco Algerian writer Boualem Sansal at Algia Airport in November.
The 80-year-old suffering from cancer has been sentenced to five years in prison for a crime against national security.
Before the latest developments, Paris expressed hope that Saint-Sar could soon be released with Tebborn’s “humanitarian gestures.”
Those hopes are now dark.
