Recall of the Algerian ambassador, ban on overflight of Algerian territory ... For three days, Algeria has expressed its anger against France and against President Macron who, last Thursday, s ...

Crisis between Algiers and Paris: "Certain statements by Emmanuel Macron could not pass"

Audio 08:12

In this photo taken on July 23, 2021, an Algerian flag flies over the facade of the embassy in Paris.

Tensions rose between Paris and Algiers, which recalled its French ambassador.

By: Christophe Boisbouvier Follow

6 mins

Recall of the Algerian ambassador, ban on overflight of Algerian territory ... For three days, Algeria has expressed its anger against France and against President Macron who, last Thursday, wondered if the Algerian nation existed before French colonization.

But is it only this little phrase that is causing today a serious crisis between Algiers and Paris?

French lawyer Jean-Pierre Mignard is familiar with Algeria.

In February 2017, he accompanied the candidate Emmanuel Macron to Algeria.

Today, he answers the questions of Christophe Boisbouvier.

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RFI: How do you explain this crisis between Algiers and Paris

Jean-Pierre Mignard

Yes, it's a crisis that stems a lot from the dissatisfaction of the French side, which considers that it has given a lot and received little. The forms of this dissatisfaction are, however, particularly harsh and there have been declarations by the President of the Republic which, it is true, such as they are and when we know the extraordinary susceptibility that exists in the relations between the two countries, could not pass.

Precisely, it was last Thursday, the French president received about twenty Franco-Algerians at the Elysee. He told them: “

Was there an Algerian nation before French colonization
?
". He added that this Algerian nation, since the end of the Algerian war, has been built on a "
memorial rent
" which is "
the hatred of France
". Emmanuel Macron let go ...

I disagree because, historically, the nation is a Western concept, very French, and a very recent concept. Peoples can exist, have a culture, a civilization, a society, forms of legal life between them, and not be a constituted nation. This indeed, I think it is wrong. I think indeed that the Algerians take it badly, opponents and pro-government. I mean it's an old colonial notion which is: before us, there was nothing. This is not true. Before the arrival of France, there was not nothing. The proof, all the same, we used in terms of the Algerian treasure, etc. I find that this is the sentence too many. Not everything was born with colonization. You have to be extremely careful about this. There, I think indeed that there is slippage.

And when Emmanuel Macron declares

: "
I have a good dialogue with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, but I see that he is caught in a system which is very harsh
", is he not implying that the president Algerian does not have all the powers and that it is in fact the military who govern?
Wasn't it also that which ignited the powder
?

This is exactly what was understood and this is what, obviously, was not accepted, that is to say to qualify the Algerian regime in a very pejorative form.

We have the right to think of it what we want besides.

A politico-military system
", says Emmanuel Macron ...

The whole history of power in Algeria is a story where civil power and military power were very intertwined.

This is not a novelty on this point.

Algerians say it themselves.

The question is: should it be said like that?

To say it like that is obviously not to be able to ignore that it will lead to reactions of great anger.

What you are saying is that, starting from the Stora report of January 20, there have been proposals from France in favor of common memorial gestures in Paris and Algiers, and that the hand extended by Paris has not not seized by Algiers, where this tension of Emmanuel Macron today

Yes it's possible. We will see what will be done on October 17th. But, once again, what seems decisive to me is that we cannot historically say that, before colonization, nothing existed, because you see what that implies. This implies that colonization would have been a factor in civilization, a factor in the constitution of a nation which, without colonization, would not exist. And that, I understand very well that it cannot pass among the Algerians.

During their last meeting in New York, the Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ramtane Lamamra asked his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian to remain neutral on the Algerian-Moroccan file, that is to say on the file of Western Sahara, which has greatly poisoned Algiers-Rabat relations for two months. Is it also a problem between Paris and Algiers

This is obviously a problem for France, which is terrified of having to choose.

That is a certainty.

At the same time, to be neutral is always to be criticized for being too benevolent in relation to one or the other of the parties.

What is certain is that what has just happened between France and Algeria almost physically makes Morocco, perhaps temporarily, an interlocutor with whom relations are normal, in any case better.

So that won't help.

In the Algerian political class, there is the leader of the Islamist movement, Mouvement de la société pour la paix (MSP), Abderrazak Makri, who does not hesitate to say that Emmanuel Macron is doing demagoguery at the moment against the Algeria, because we are a few months away from the French presidential election.

It would be electoralism ...

It is true that, when I read French far-right authors, the question of the Algerian war is always there, the question of a kind of humiliation which would have been drawn from what Algerian independence would have. was done to our detriment.

Yes, it all exists.

So, we feel that there is an electorate who can always be concerned by this question.

This is undoubtedly the reason why we actually hesitate to transfer the ashes of Gisèle Halimi to the Pantheon.

The wound is not closed.

This question, yes, indeed can be put today in the electoral debate in order to calm, neutralize a revengeful opinion in France.

You supported candidate Macron five years ago.

Will you support him again next year

This is not the question we felt we had to discuss.

I wait to see, I am like any citizen.

I am waiting to see.

For me, that is an extremely important question, because it is a question on which he was very committed.

I would like to know now how we are going to get out of this situation for the good of France and for the good of Algeria.

►

To read also:
Algeria recalls its ambassador to France "for consultations"

►

Also to listen:
"There is interference between the Algerian internal situation and Franco-Algerian relations", according to historian Guy Pervillé, specialist in the Algerian war,

Guest Africa - Crisis between Algiers and Paris: "Certain statements by Emmanuel Macron could not pass"

Crisis between Algiers and Paris: "Certain statements by Emmanuel Macron could not pass"

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