French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Wednesday that his government is meeting to prepare a response to the “hostile posture” adopted by Algeria.
“The relationship between France and Algeria is not a bilateral relationship like any other, it is a relationship of deep intimacy,” Barrot told French lawmakers.
Barrot said this week that France would have “no option but to retaliate” if “the Algerians continue to escalate.” He suggested restrictions on travel visas and development assistance as retaliatory measures.
Former prime minister Gabriel Attal went further, advising the government of President Emmanuel Macron to nullify a 1968 agreement that grants Algerians special permission to live and work in France – unless Algeria reins in “hate preachers” who spout “antisemitic remarks, calls for murder, glorification of terrorism,” and “hostility toward our country.”
Relations grew significantly worse between Algeria and former colonial power France in July when Macron said the Western Sahara region should be governed by Morocco and promised to put French investments behind Moroccan sovereignty.
Macron’s comments picked at a wound in French-Algerian-Moroccan relations that has never come close to healing. Morocco lays claim to the entire Western Sahara, while Algeria supports a separatist movement that wants part of the area to become self-governed and autonomous. Morocco regards this movement as a terrorist organization.
Macron reiterated his support for Morocco’s territorial claim before the French legislature in October, to thunderous applause. Algeria felt France was betraying it by embracing Morocco’s position in a bid to shore up relations with its other former colonial possession.
In the months since then, French officials have accused Algeria of vindictively attempting to erase French economic interests and choke off trade.
In November, Algeria arrested French dual national Boualem Sansal, an elderly writer who has been sharply critical of the Algerian government and political Islam. Sansal’s work is largely banned in Algeria, but is very popular in France among both the left and right.
France was outraged by the arrest and demanded Sansal’s release.
“The detention without serious grounds of a writer of French nationality is unacceptable,” Foreign Minister Barrot said in November.
Macron said last week denounced the arrest of Sansal as dishonorable, especially since the 75-year-old is reportedly in poor health.
“Algeria, which we love so much and with which we share so many children and so many stories, is dishonoring itself by preventing a seriously ill man from receiving treatment,” Macron said.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, on the other hand, dismissed Sansal as a saboteur dispatched by France who “doesn’t know his identity, doesn’t know his father, and comes to say that half of Algeria belongs to another state.”
Another flashpoint arrived last week, when French police arrested three Algerian social media influencers for posting videos which allegedly incited violence, supported terrorism, and promoted anti-Semitic ideas.
France sent one of the influences back to Algeria by plane – only to have Algeria refuse to accept him and ship him right back to Paris.
“I want to express my astonishment,” French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleu said last Friday. “I think we’ve reached an extremely worrying threshold with Algeria. It’s clear that Algeria is trying to humiliate France.”
“There’s absolutely no question of giving free rein to the hatred of these individuals who are spreading antisemitism, murder, et cetera. Social media networks are not a lawless zone,” Retailleu said, following up with another demand for Algeria to release Boualem Sansal.
