This is not a “state visit”, but one “official and friendly visit”. In Paris, when it comes to Franco-Algerian relations, we weigh our words when it comes to describing Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Algeria from August 25 to 27. After a quarrel of several months, the two capitals consider this trip as “a first step”. “Both presidents considered it a suitable choice for this period. We can hope that a state visit will come next, in both directions by the way”, explains the Elysée.
Franco-Algerian relations experienced a cold snap when, in September 2021, Emmanuel Macron criticized the system “politico-military” Algerian to maintain a “memorial pension” around the War of Independence. This time, this official visit is intended to be turned towards the “Youth and the Future” in order to “refound” That relation. Accompanied by an impressive delegation, including the Chief Rabbi of France, Haïm Korsia – a first for such a visit – the President will meet with his Algerian counterpart twice before going to Oran, the second city of the country, which has its “cultural specificities”, explains the Elysée. ” A wish ” personal to show that, when he goes to Algeria, he does not only go to the capital, but that“he wants to address the whole country”.
In the streets of Algiers, the announcement of the visit of the French delegation arouses much less enthusiasm than the first trip of Emmanuel Macron, five years earlier. In question, the polemical remarks made by the French head of state almost a year ago in the columns of the World about the Algerian political system and especially the existence of a “Algerian Nation” before French colonization. Although the French President has since expressed his “regret”Algerian public opinion has not completely turned the page.
A few weeks after the grand celebration of the 60e anniversary of the country’s accession to independence, some expect a symbolic gesture from President Macron. “For example, the restitution of archives from the colonial period”advances Mohamed, grandson of chahid (combatant died during the Algerian war), who dreams of an appeasement between the two countries in the image of Franco-German reconciliation.
New economic breath
The trip also aims to breathe new life into an economic and commercial partnership which did not keep all the promises made during Emmanuel Macron’s first visit as French head of state in December 2017. “Of the eleven agreements signed during the Algerian-French high-level intergovernmental committee five years ago, only one project has seen the light of day. It’s sad “deplores Lyes Boudiaf, founding president of the investment company Isly Holding.
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