It is a subject on the “agenda”, believes Élisabeth Borne. The renegotiation of the Franco-Algerian agreement, which suffered a first setback in the National Assembly on Thursday, is therefore on the shelf, says the head of government in an interview with Figaro published Wednesday evening. A proposal which first came from Edouard Philippe, then taken up on the right by the Republicans who took advantage of a parliamentary niche to try to pass, without success, a text requesting the denunciation of this agreement signed in 1968.
But what is this agreement? Why is it being debated in France today? Can it harm the relationship between Paris and Algiers? 20 minutes takes stock of the new French controversy linked to the very pervasive subject of immigration.
What is this Franco-Algerian agreement?
In 1962, the Evian Accords ended the Algerian War and defined the conditions for the country’s independence after 130 years of French domination. They also provided for free movement of nationals of the two countries. But, six years later, in 1968, Paris and Algiers returned to this last provision. An agreement is reached on the subject of immigration between the two countries relating to “the movement, employment and stay in France of Algerian nationals and their families”, according to the official text available on the website of the Ministry of the Interior. “It was concluded, signed, because Algeria was part of French territory for 132 years,” explains Gilles Manceron, historian specializing in the history of colonization and member of the Human Rights League, at 20 minutes.
Modified by three amendments since 1968, movement rights have been reduced in a “drastic” manner, notes the Gisti (Immigrant Information and Support Group) on its site. “If the third amendment to the agreement, signed on July 11, 2001 (and entered into force on January 1, 2003), essentially aligned the regime of Algerians with the law applicable to other foreigners, the restrictive laws adopted since ( November 26, 2003, July 24, 2006, November 20, 2007 and June 16, 2011) do not concern them. So much so that the situation of Algerian nationals is today, in law, a little less unfavorable than that of other foreign populations,” the association further underlines.
Why are we talking about it again now?
This is why the subject is back on the table today. It will not have escaped readers keen on current events that a new and umpteenth bill on immigration is currently under parliamentary examination, debated from next Monday in session at the National Assembly. It is in this context that the LR deputies proposed a text requesting the denunciation of the Franco-Algerian agreement. Their proposal to resolve this agreement, which confers a special status on Algerians in terms of movement, residence and employment in France, was rejected by 151 votes against and 114 for. But the objective was not to see it adopted, rather to embody firmness in the eyes of public opinion, in the face of a government “without ambition” on immigration.
A bet held by the head of government who took up the idea in her speech. “In the conclusions of the fourth France-Algeria high-level intergovernmental committee, which was held in October 2022, we mentioned the opening of discussions with a view to a fourth amendment to this agreement. We have demands and the Algerian government has some on its side. It is therefore indeed on the agenda,” declared the Prime Minister in an interview with Figaro, who asked him if he should renegotiate this agreement. Gilles Manceron only sees it as a “French political affair which relates to the rapprochement, or not, of the Macronist line towards the LR right or the extreme right on the sensitive question of Algeria”.
Could the fragile relationship between Paris and Algiers suffer?
Several Renaissance deputies made it known that they were against the idea, just like the Head of State himself who would have warned against any “demagoguery” and pleaded to “keep our balance” in the Council of Ministers, reports Le Figaro. “I did not understand that France’s foreign policy was defined in Parliament,” Emmanuel Macron is also said to have said. Especially since until now, the French president has rather tried to implement a policy of appeasement with the Algerian government. In October 2021, he spoke of “inexcusable crimes for the Republic” during an official ceremony for the 60th anniversary of the massacre on the night of October 17, 1961. Candidate for his first election, he also described colonization as “ crime against humanity” of “true barbarism”. More recently, Emmanuel Macron nevertheless felt that he did not have to “ask for forgiveness” for colonization.
The French right’s initiative could cool the already fragile relations between Paris and Algiers. “This attempt launched by Edouard Philippe seems absurd and inappropriate to me because this agreement is justified by history, and history cannot be erased with the stroke of a pen,” judges historian Gilles Manceron in turn. The independence of Algeria inevitably led to population displacements.”