Macron introduces new French visa restrictions against Algeria
French President Emmanuel Macron has called for "more firmness" towards Algeria and announced new measures against the country, marking a new stage in the diplomatic crisis between Algiers and its former colonial power.
In its latest punitive act, Macron said France will suspend visa exemptions for Algerian diplomats and officials, which had been part of a 2013 agreement.
The states have been embroiled in an unprecedented row for over a year, resulting in the expulsion of officials on both sides, the recall of ambassadors and restrictions on officials holding diplomatic visas.
An important source of tension has been the imprisonment by Algeria of French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal.
An Algerian court handed Sansal a five-year sentence for "undermining the integrity of Algerian territory" over statements made to a far-right media outlet in France, in which Sansal suggested Moroccan territory had been acquired by Algeria during the colonial period.
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Separately, French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes was also sentenced to seven years in prison in Algeria for “condoning terrorism”, after he interviewed a sports club manager from Kabylia who also leads the pro-independence Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK).
"Algerian authorities have deliberately chosen not to respond to our repeated calls over the past few months to work together in the interest of our two nations," Macron said, adding that France had no choice but to toughen its stance.
"France must be strong and command respect," the president wrote in a letter to his prime minister, published by Le Figaro on Wednesday.
"It can only obtain this from its partners if it itself shows them the respect it demands. This basic rule applies to Algeria as well."
Macron further cited Algeria's "non-compliance with its obligations" regarding migration, as well as "the cessation of cooperation between the 18 Algerian consulates present on our soil and state services".
Macron also asked the government to "immediately" implement a provision of the 2024 immigration law that "allows the refusal of short-stay visas to holders of service and diplomatic passports, as well as long-stay visas to all types of applicants".
The president also asked his interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, to quickly "find ways and means [to ensure] useful cooperation with his Algerian counterpart".
A hardliner on Algiers, Retailleau has said "the diplomacy of good intentions had failed".
Retailleau is seen as a rightward force on Macron and has lobbied the French president to take a tougher stance on the deportation of unauthorised Algerian migrants in France.
Macron has chosen 'rupture'
Algiers reacted by accusing France of "shirking its responsibilities" and announcing its intention to repeal the visa exemption agreement for diplomatic passports with Paris.
Macron's letter "places all the blame on the Algerian side. Nothing could be further from the truth and reality," the Algerian ministry of foreign affairs said.
Media outlets in the North African state have also criticised Macron’s statements and his decision to “opt for escalation”.
They said visa restrictions could have a serious impact on mobility between the two countries, affecting Algerians going to France for study, work or family reasons, as well as French businesses in Algeria.
Journalist Khaled Drareni, the Reporters Without Borders representative for North Africa, accused Macron of having "sided with his interior minister's outrageous remarks on the Algerian issue, trampling on the hopes of easing tensions between Algiers and Paris".
"To those who still believed in normalisation, he has presented a clear political choice: that of rupture.
"The official justifications - lack of migration cooperation, expulsions of diplomats - don't hold water. They are excuses. The real reason is the absence of a [Algerian] presidential pardon for Boualem Sansal. It was necessary to have the courage to say so clearly," Drareni wrote on X.
Drareni also blamed the French presidency for having "abandoned the truth".
The journalist was referring to Macron's remarks as reported by Le Monde in October 2021, where he accused the Algerian "politico-military" system of serving its people an "official history" that "is not based on truths", and asked if "there was an Algerian nation before French colonisation".
These remarks sparked anger among Algerian authorities, already irritated by an earlier French decision to restrict the issuing of visas for Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, in the face of the refusal by those states to repatriate their illegal immigrants from France.
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