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El Chorouk
09-07-2025
- Politics
- El Chorouk
The French Unleash Their Former Ambassador to Attack Algeria
Xavier Driencourt, France's former ambassador to Algeria, has reappeared in right-leaning French media outlets. The retired diplomat made two appearances on consecutive days, which suggests that this 'giant' has been freed from the shackles he was believed to have been bound by during the undeclared truce unilaterally observed by Paris, in an attempt to win over Algerian authorities to release the Franco-Algerian writer, Boualem Sansal, who is serving a five-year prison sentence in Algeria. For many weeks, the retired diplomat, who worked in Algeria twice (2008 and 2012), and (2017 and 2020), had not made any media appearances. This 'disappearance' coincided with a remarkable calm in French political and media circles regarding their dealings with Algeria, including those with right-wing leanings. This leads one to believe that the man received signals from decision-makers about the necessity of staying out of the spotlight. Xavier Driencourt, in an interview with French radio station 'Europe 1' on Wednesday, July 9, reiterated his inflammatory statements against Algeria, calling on his country's authorities to adopt a 'iron fist' policy. These statements were expected from him, as his frequent media appearances have become synonymous with attacking Algeria. According to the author of the books 'The Algerian Enigma' and 'Double Blindness,' Algeria has succeeded in taming French arrogance, despite the threats issued by more than one official in the administration of French President Emmanuel Macron. Here, Xavier questioned the threat issued by French Prime Minister François Bayrou last February, when he said that his country was giving Algerian authorities six weeks to settle the issue of Algerians who had been ordered to be expelled from French territory. However, to date, after nearly five months, none of what Bayrou promised has materialized, while Boualem Sansal remains imprisoned. According to Driencourt, Algerian authorities derive their strength from the weakness of French authorities, reiterating the demand for taking certain measures that have proven to be ineffective in subjugating Algerian authorities, who act based on defending their sovereign rights, and according to the same logic that the French defend, which is the independence of justice. Before appearing as a guest on 'Europe 1' radio, Driencourt, who suddenly transformed into a theoretician for the far-right regarding Algerian-French relations, had previously appeared as a guest on 'Le Figaro Live' online, where he also attacked the silence of French authorities regarding the continued imprisonment of Boualem Sansal. The retired diplomat criticized French circles that are futilely trying to instill hope in the supporters of the Franco-Algerian writer that he will be released soon, each time. He pointed here to the initial clinging to the possibility of overturning the court's sentence at the level of the Algiers Judicial Council, but the decision upheld the sentence. Then, hope shifted to a presidential pardon on the occasion of the double anniversary of Independence and Youth Day. Now, there is talk these days about the possibility of a pardon for Sansal for health reasons, as he is ill. When that does not happen, attention will turn, as Driencourt said, to next November, and so on. Xavier Driencourt expressed his disappointment at the lack of European support for the French position on the Sansal case, noting that Noëlle Lenoir, the head of the so-called International Committee to Support Sansal, contacted European Union officials to rally support for her cause, but she heard from them statements such as Brussels awaiting concrete action from Paris before taking action, which he considered a negative stance. The current French position on the Sansal case resembles what Spain experienced more than two years ago, when the Madrid government rushed to appeal to the European Union for support against the economic sanctions imposed by Algeria on Spanish companies at the time. However, it did not receive any support. In fact, countries like Italy and Spain, both EU member states, exploited the situation and entered into an exceptional partnership with Algeria (in the case of Italy), making Rome the exclusive distributor of Algerian gas in Europe, after Madrid had spent billions of euros to prepare the infrastructure to play the same role.
El Chorouk
28-05-2025
- Politics
- El Chorouk
Laboratories in Paris are unable to understand France's helplessness against Algeria.
The French are still searching by all means for what they consider 'the reasons for helplessness against Algeria' in the current iron grip, and for that, they resort each time to interrogating politicians, historians, and specialists in political sociology, hoping to reach the recipe that will enable them to regain lost influence in their former colony, which has begun to deal with them with an unprecedented equal footing. The latest to be interrogated in this context was the well-known French sociologist, Gilles Kepel, who was a guest on the 'Le Figaro Live' platform, to answer the central question: 'Why is France unable to confront Algeria?', a question that has been strongly raised for more than ten months, which marks the age of the escalating and unprecedented crisis between the two countries. Gilles Kepel, who is a professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, and also holds the Chair of the Middle East and the Mediterranean at the Paris Sciences et Lettres University, linked what has been happening between the two sides of the Mediterranean in recent months to some variables that have accumulated since Algeria gained its independence in the early 1960s. According to the French sociologist, the first factor that increased the strength and rigidity of the Algerian position is that this country, Kepel says, enjoys economic independence derived from the large wealth and resources that Algeria possesses, foremost among them oil and gas wealth, which provided financial resources that enabled the Algerian state to eliminate dependence on foreign countries in the field of financing and to establish the necessary infrastructure that the state needs. As for the second dimension, it is represented by the Algerian community, which numbers millions in the former colony, and this is a card that plays in Algeria's favor in any conflict between the two countries. Moreover, the diversity of this community and its penetration into various aspects of activity in French society makes it influential. He pointed here to the arrival of an immigrant's son of Algerian origin to the government, where he currently holds the portfolios of Interior and Justice, referring to Gérald Moussa Darmanin, in addition to the presence of influential businessmen and intellectuals of Algerian origin in French society. The professor at the 'London Ideas' Center for Diplomacy and Strategy at the London School of Economics and Political Science also believes that what he considers 'Algerian hostile policy towards France may have a negative impact on a segment of the French people,' and he refers here to the children of the Algerian community who may, of course, follow the interests of their country, according to his view, which is a natural thing that can happen in any country that hosts a large foreign community. With some precision, Gilles Kepel refers to the disturbances and incidents that some French prisons were subjected to, and the targeting of some agents working in prison services, in the previous weeks, when the tension between the two countries was at its highest levels, and he tried to link that to the iron grip adopted by the French government towards Algeria and its community. The French sociologist did not hide his fears of the pressure usually exerted by some lobbies (pressure groups) affiliated with Algeria in France. The French remain perplexed in dealing with Algeria in light of the current crisis, the repercussions of which have confused decision-makers in Paris, so that, after nearly a year of the escalating crisis, they are still unable to get out of this quagmire they fell into, ever since French President Emmanuel Macron decided to blatantly side with the Moroccan regime in the Western Sahara issue, despite his awareness of the seriousness of that position on French interests in Algeria.
