The diplomatic ditch widens a little more between Paris and Algiers. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has promised a “graduated response”, while his Algerian counterpart opposed, Monday, March 17, an end of inadmissibility to the list of expensive Algerians provided by Paris in recent days, reiterating his “categorical rejection of threats, inclination of intimidation, injunctions and ultimatums” coming from France. “The Algerian authorities have decided not to follow up on the list submitted by the French authorities” and “invited them to follow the usage channel (for such a procedure, editor’s note) in this case that established between the prefectures and the consulates”, summed up a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
What is this list?
France had established a first list of sixty names from Algerians to expel, which had been given Friday, March 14 at the Algerian Embassy in France. By announcing the constitution of this list, the French Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau had mentioned “profiles of type ‘public order’, leaving prison or with dangerous profiles”. While adding: “Of course, they don’t all have the same dangerousness.”
“My mission,” argued the minister in early March, “she is to protect the French and I do not want what happened in Mulhouse will happen tomorrow […] In Mulhouse, a terrorist killed a man who was a Portuguese national. He should have been in Algeria. We had presented him on multiple occasions to the Algerians who had refused him, “he continued, judging that the reaction of Algeria to this list would be” the test of truth “.
Why did Algeria said no in Paris?
By rejecting this list, Algeria said it was “animated only by the concern to pay its duty of consular protection with regard to its nationals”, according to the press release. It is important, for Algiers, to “ensure compliance with the rights of persons being the subject of distance measures”. “On the form”, Algiers estimated that Paris “could not unilaterally and at its sole discretion call into question the traditional channel for the processing of removal files”, that which links each French prefecture to the Algerian consulate in its area. “Basically”, Algeria recalled the existence of bilateral agreements from 1974 and 1994 which remain “the main frame of reference in consular matters between the two countries”.
In what context does this new weapon pass happen?
Relations between France and Algeria have continued to deteriorate since recognition last July by President Emmanuel Macron of a plan of autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty proposed by Rabat for Western Sahara, territory with not defined status according to the UN. Algeria’s refusal to accept several nationals under an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF), including the author of the attack in Mulhouse on February 22, aggravated the situation.
Bruno Retailleau multiplies the virulent remarks against Algiers, in particular since the mid-November incarceration of the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, prosecuted for declarations made in France to a far-right media and considered to be involved in the integrity of the Algerian territory.
What are the options of France after the Algerian refusal?
After this Algerian Camouflet, Bruno Retailleau promised a “graduated response” on Monday evening, saying “regretting that Algeria refuses to apply international law”. Reducing work visas for Algerian workers could be part of the “graduated responses” decided by the government, said the Minister of Labor, Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet on Tuesday on RTL. “The first track is to look at the 2007 treaty on visas for those who have diplomatic passports and who come to France regularly,” she said. “The 1968 treaty shows that Algeria benefits today from exceptional exemptions which could be justified a few years after the Evian agreements but which are no longer justified today,” she added.
Invited on TF1 Tuesday morning, the Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin added that Algeria should “hear the will of France” and resume its nationals, “especially dangerous”. Saying “completely favorable to the graduated response” mentioned by Bruno Retailleau, he pleaded for the recall of the French ambassador to Algeria and at the “end of diplomatic visas”. “It is necessary to put an end to this. There is no reason for France to continue to be generous with this country,” added the Keeper of the Seals.