PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron issued a public hands-off warning to his ministers after they attempted to turn up the dial with Algeria amid the two countries’ increasingly bitter diplomatic spat.
“We need to engage in a rigorous and respectful dialogue,” Macron said in an interview with French daily Le Figaro published on Tuesday.
Macron’s comments stand in sharp contrast to those made by Prime Minister François Bayrou last week, when he warned that France might withdraw from a 1968 agreement that simplifies immigration procedures for Algerian nationals over Algiers’ perceived failure to take back undocumented citizens currently living in France.
The recent debate was spurred by a deadly knife attack in eastern France, allegedly perpetrated by a 37-year-old Algerian citizen with a “schizophrenic profile.” French authorities claimed they had tried to deport him 14 times, but Algeria refused to allow his reentry. Algiers has not publicly commented on this specific case but accused Paris of following “orders from the far right” in escalating its fight against Algeria.
Most deportation orders issued by French authorities do not result in departure from France, partly due to strained diplomatic relations with receiving countries who must issue a consular pass for repatriation to proceed.
While acknowledging challenges related to migration, Macron stressed that withdrawing from an international agreement is a decision that belongs to the president, not the government.
“I am totally in favor, not of leaving it, but of renegotiating it,” he added.
Macron does not hold as strong of a grip on day-to-day governmental affairs since his party lost control of the French lower house of parliament last year, but international affairs remain under the president’s remit per French political custom.
France’s hardline Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who oversees immigration policy and has called for scrapping the 1968 agreement, “does not share” the president’s position, said an adviser to Retailleau who was granted anonymity for protocol reasons. The individual added that the disagreement between Macron and Retailleau was “not new.”
France’s relationship with Algeria has had its ups and downs since the former colony won independence in 1962 after a bloody war. Ties have been particularly strained in recent months, as France backed Algeria’s neighbor and rival Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. The two sides are also at loggerheads over the arrest and continued imprisonment of French-Algerian author Boualem Sansal in Algeria, and Paris has accused several Algerian digital content creators of attempting to incite violence in France.
Algerians represented 12.2 percent of France’s immigrant population in 2023, the most recent year for which data is available.
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