The head of French diplomacy Jean-Yves Le Drian is visiting Algiers on Wednesday in order to “relaunch the Franco-Algerian relationship”, extremely complex and tense for months. This is a “working visit, assessment and relaunching of relations,” said the Quai d’Orsay. The trip, kept secret until the last moment, will see Jean-Yves Le Drian meet his Algerian counterpart Ramtane Lamamra as well as Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, according to this source.
The visit comes as relations between the two countries are at their lowest for months. President Emmanuel Macron sparked the ire of Algiers in October by accusing, according to comments reported by the French daily The world, the Algerian “politico-military” system of maintaining a “memorial rent” around the war for independence and France, a former colonial power, and while Paris has undertaken work to try to appease this memorial question by France.
The number of visas on the table?
According to the daily, he also questioned the existence of an “Algerian nation” before French colonization, causing strong reactions in Algerian society. Algeria then recalled its ambassador to Paris and prohibited the overflight of its territory to French military planes rallying the Sahel. The French president has since expressed his “regrets” at the reactions generated and said he was “strongly attached to the development” of the bilateral relationship.
Paris and Algiers were also opposed after the announcement by France in early October of the reduction in the number of visas granted to its nationals, to put pressure on the Algerian government, considered uncooperative on the readmission of Algerians expelled from France. Algiers then deplored a decision taken “without prior consultation”, which “includes the crippling anomaly of having been the subject of media hype”, before summoning the French ambassador to Algeria. In mid-November, Jean-Yves Le Drian called for a “trusting” relationship and an “ambitious partnership” with Algeria, beyond the memory “wounds” which can “sometimes” resurface. But nothing says that the visa issue will not be put on the table.