In a climate of tensions revived since the beginning of the year between Paris and Algiers, a presidential decree published in the Official Journal has expanded the list of circumstances in which an anti-France passage of the Algerian anthem can be sung.
For a few days, the information has been circulating in France: Algeria has restored an old verse from its national anthem. Problem, this one would be anti-France. What is it in practice? What do we know about this famous verse? If in France the information is only talking about it now, the change dates back almost a month already. Indeed, on May 21, 2023, a presidential decree published in the Official Journal (OJ) Algerian modified “the circumstances and conditions of interpretation, integral or partial, of the national anthem as well as the musical scores, complete and reduced, interpreted during official ceremonies”, indicates the OJ.
An event that comes as relations between Paris and Algiers have recently been strained. Since the beginning of the year 2023, the cordial agreement is indeed no longer really topical between the two countries with a common past loaded. This new period of crisis began last February, when France took part in the exfiltration, from Tunisia and to France, of the Algerian opponent Amira Bouraoui, who was then under sentence of Algeria. Following this event, Algiers chose to stop issuing consular passes to France. Documents that Paris needs to deport illegal immigrants deemed “undesirable”.
If the whole of the text does not lack vehemence, nor raw words which can easily compete with the promise of impure blood of the Marseillaisethe third verse of the Algerian anthem, entitled Kassaman, clearly names the enemy, namely France. The lyrics of the questioning verse are as follows: “O France! The time for palaver is over. We have closed it like one closes a book. O France! The day has come when you must give an account. Get ready! Here is our answer. The verdict, our revolution will do so. For we have decided that Algeria will live. Witness it!” Words that leave little room for interpretation.