Relations with Algeria continue to poison the life of the French government. Faced with France’s inability to enforce its deportations to this North African country, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau is threatening to resign over the issue if he does not obtain President Macron’s support to ensure that his commitments are respected.
For several months now, France has been faced with the Algerian authorities’ systematic refusal to take back their nationals deported from France. There are many Algerians in an irregular situation who are considered dangerous to French security, including criminals and TikTokers advocating terrorism online. But all attempts by the Ministry of the Interior to have them sent back to their country of origin have so far ended in bitter failure—demonstrating, in the words of Minister Retailleau, Algeria’s desire to “humiliate” France. Faced with this ongoing stalemate, the minister has announced his intention to resign if he does not obtain the support of the president of the republic to take up the fight with the Algerian government and win his case. In an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien, he explained that the expulsion of Algerian offenders was, in his view, a “priority” to ensure the safety of the French. He explained:
I am not here for a job but to fulfil a mission, that of protecting the French. As long as I am convinced that I am useful and that the means are given to me, I will be mobilised. But if I were asked to give in on this major issue for the security of the French, obviously I would refuse.
From the outset, the minister’s line has been that of the indispensable “balance of power,” involving a “graduated response”, with the aim of finally revoking the 1968 Franco-Algerian agreement—negotiated in the wake of the war of independence, and which grants a certain number of privileges to Algerian citizens that are now considered unfair by a significant part of the French political class and public opinion. The minister recalls the emblematic case of the attack in Mulhouse on February 22nd: an Algerian subject to an expulsion order murdered a Portuguese national and injured three municipal police officers while shouting “Allahu akbar.” Algeria had refused to give a consular pass to its national on not less than ten occasions, despite insistent requests from the ministry.
The shadow of Donald Trump and his policy of firmness towards the Latin American countries that had initially announced their refusal to take back their nationals expelled from the United States hangs over Retailleau’s position. On the Right, several voices have been raised, demanding that France reserve the same treatment for Algeria as Trump for Colombia.
Retailleau’s themes, coming from a man who needs to assert his credibility against his competitor Laurent Wauquiez for the presidency of their party—are not necessarily to the taste of the head of the government François Bayrou. The PM hastened to calm the ardour of his minister. “Firmness does not necessarily speak loudly,” Bayrou declared on France Inter radio, wanting to spare the feelings of the numerous Algerian citizens residing on French soil. According to the Immigration and Demography Observatory, France is indeed home to an Algerian diaspora of at least 2.6 million people, including 846,000 immigrants stricto sensu, the largest number of any nationality represented.
The prime minister also said, however, that he was in favour of calling into question the 1968 treaty if no agreement could be reached with the Algerian regime. For the time being, the situation remains deadlocked with no prospect of an improvement in relations.
