Xavier Driencourt was French Ambassador to Algeria between 2008 and 2012, then between 2017 and 2020. He judges today with a bit of perplexity the three-day visit of Emmanuel Macron, until this Saturday August 27, in the insofar as the Algerian power has given no significant sign of progress on the two main subjects of friction between the two countries, the issue of memory and immigration. Maintenance.
L’Express: Emmanuel Macron’s visit does not provide for any major signing of contracts, any negotiations on gas… What is the meaning of this trip?
Xavier Driencourt: This visit has an essentially political meaning. The objective is to relaunch, rebuild and regenerate Franco-Algerian relations. This implies that we are going to talk about difficult, even tricky files, the issue of memory, visas, for example. That’s why this visit seems complicated to me: is it the right timing, is it the right format? Difficult timing because with Algeria, you have to be in a strong position to negotiate. However, it is clear that there has been no real progress for a year on the various files, since the declarations of the President of the Republic on the “memorial rent”. We welcome in Paris 300 people taken back to the border this year, but we forget that there is an annual flow of 10,000 irregular Algerians in France. So 300 consular passes is certainly better than the 21 the previous year, but it’s still not considerable!
Not to mention that French has just been replaced by English in the Algerian administration; going to the Oran stadium where the French delegation to the Mediterranean Games was whistled a month ago is also surprising. Complicated format too, because with a partner like the Algerians, to advance sensitive issues, it is often better to be four around the table and negotiate “between four eyes” rather than being with a delegation of 100 people.
This outstretched hand in the direction of Algeria can it not be seized, despite everything? The Algerians also need to strengthen their relationship with France.
Yes. Algeria fell out with Spain, broke diplomatic relations with Morocco. So it has an interest, despite the differences, to deal with France, which remains the main partner. This visit is also a mark of respectability, a legitimation on the part of France. Algiers’ objective is also to advance the visa file – a strong request from the Algerian population. President Macron has announced a youth-oriented visit. But this youth, it asks for one thing, it is above all visas.
France has clearly made the granting of visas conditional on the signing of more consular laissez-passer in the event of the expulsion of Algerian nationals. How to explain that the Algerian power does not sign more?
Those who take the risk of living illegally in France and who are then deported to the border are not necessarily people that the Algerian authorities want and have an interest in bringing back.
Is the Algerian power ready to go further in cooperation with France?
Everything depends on the balance of power within the Algerian politico-military system. There are officials who want to renew a strong link with France, because they are realistic, there are those who want to pull the rope a little more and see on the other essential dossier, which is the memory, until where the President of the Republic is ready to go.
Exactly, what is Emmanuel Macron’s medium-term plan?
The president probably aims to be the one who will turn the page with Algeria. He thinks he has the time – because he will have done two five-year terms -, that he is not a prisoner of the heaviness of the past, that he is freer than his predecessors. But the difficulty is that Algeria is both foreign policy and domestic policy in France, and France is foreign policy and domestic policy in Algeria. If the president succeeds in obtaining positive progress for us on these two files, which are the memory and immigration, I will say “hat”. But it seems very complicated to me.
Would President Macron have an interest in making further progress on the memorial file?
He gives himself five years to continue to progress. There should also be progress on the Algerian side, for the harkis, for the Jews, for the pied-noirs. There are still ongoing real estate disputes. In Algiers, are we ready to move forward on this? This has not been the case so far. Creating a working group will not be enough, it has already been done several times.
How is Emmanuel Macron perceived in Algeria?
In 2017, his election raised many hopes. In the population, we imagined that this young president could regenerate, reformat the relationship between the two countries. Within the Algerian power, I think that we do not fully understand Emmanuel Macron. He belongs to a generation that is not theirs.
Doesn’t the gas crisis create a convergent interest between the two countries?
Yes, but the Algerians are a historical partner of Russia. Above all, the Algerians have gas reserves but I understand that they do not necessarily have the technical capacities to increase their production capacities very quickly.