It could be an article like any other, relaying a call for a boycott like any other. But nothing is trivial in this article from the Algerian online newspaper TSA of January 2, titled: “Calls for a boycott of the new film by Jamel Debbouze (Mercatoin theaters next February, Editor’s note)”.
First, the target: Jamel Debbouze. The initiator of the boycott relayed in this article, the influencer “Hattek HB3”, followed by 189,000 people on TikTok, criticizes the actor for his silence on the Israeli aggression against Gaza. In the past, other public figures have been criticized for the same reasons without making the front page of the Algerian press. But now, the comedian combines the two worst defects of the moment in the eyes of the regime and its cronies: being French…. and Moroccan at the same time, the sum of the two enemies of the ultranationalists at the helm in Algiers, France for its colonial past, Morocco for the centuries-old dispute which opposes it to its neighbor over Western Sahara, a disputed space considered by the UN as a non-self-governing territory.
Next, the source: TSA. Long considered a reliable site in an Algerian media landscape weighed down by censorship and self-censorship, the newspaper now seems to act on orders from the Algerian government. We only read about the regime’s fads, first and foremost the Franco-Algerian quarrel and the escapades of the great Moroccan rival.
Finally, the context: between Paris and Algiers, the fever crosses thresholds never seen before in a diplomatic relationship punctuated by crises. The recent arrest, in France, of several Franco-Algerian and Algerian “influencers” calling for violence against opponents of the regime, the Jewish community and French society is the final episode in this escalation triggered, at the end of July, by the recognition by Emmanuel Macron of “Moroccan sovereignty” over Western Sahara.
Media battle
For six months, the diplomatic crisis has been coupled with a war of words and a media battle which has turned into an obsession in the press on the orders of the Algerian authorities. “A tragicomic spectacle,” notes bitterly an Algerian opponent exiled in France. “It’s very simple: there is no longer an Algerian press.” When it is not the APS, the official Algerian press agency, which sees in the writer Boualem Sansal – imprisoned for 55 days in Algeria – a “puppet of anti-Algerian revisionism” supported by a “Macronito-Zionist France” , it is these private media which turn into organs of communication. Everything is then a pretext for hysterization, everything is good to polish Algiers and ruin Paris, including the most seemingly anecdotal stories. For example, these articles on the return home of Algerians from France, at the very moment when the brain drain is accelerating in Algeria: “In 2024, Katia leaves France and its grayness behind and succeeds in opening a house in Djanet d’hôtes”, we read in this TSA paper.
“The affair” El Mordjene
Another theme of choice, success stories Algerian products for export. “To please the regime, many newspapers unfortunately give pride of place to these exports, however innocuous they may be, to show that Algeria does not only export hydrocarbons,” notes Hamid Arab, publishing director of the newspaper. The Morning of Algeriaestablished in France. The “El Mordjene” case has made a lot of noise in recent weeks. El Mordjene, named after this “made in Algeria” spread banned on the French market in September after a big buzz on social networks. A few weeks earlier, influencers were praising this “Nutella DZ” (Editor’s note: reference to Dzaïr, Arabic pronunciation of the word “Algeria”), manufactured in Oran by the family business Cebon. In France, demand is growing, to the point that the mass distribution brand Carrefour is preparing to market it. But the beautiful story ends abruptly in mid-September at the port of Marseille: containers full of pots of this hazelnut cream are blocked by customs. The product would not comply with European Union rules on the import and export of dairy products.
On the other side of the Mediterranean, the press is fuming. “The association agreement between Algeria and the European Union [NDLR : qui visait à “établir une zone de libre-échange entre l’UE et l’Algérie”]entered into force on September 1, 2005 […] does it not take precedence over European legislation?” asks El Watan, referring to a “problem of blatant commercial unfairness”.
But the matter does not end there. Faced with the success of El Mordjene, a Frenchman of Algerian origin decided to imitate his compatriots and launched “Nella Delice”, sold as an “Algerian product”. In Algiers, the press was quick to echo this new “sensation”, with a touch of exaggeration about the success of this paste. “She will not be banned like El Mordjene: this is how Nella Délice dribbled France”, jubilant the DNAlgérie site. Except… drama! The said “Nella Delice” is actually made in Türkiye! Backpedaling in accordance with TSA, which mocks this “desperate attempt to ride the wave of El Mordjene’s success”.
“The political vacuum is such in Algeria, the prospects so non-existent – other than prison, repression and poverty – that a simple spread becomes a state affair and a bilateral Franco-Algerian subject!”, laments Hamid Arab. This is what the diplomatic crisis at work between Algiers and Paris underlines: an Algerian “system” running out of steam, driven by all-out state hatred.
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