Annoyances but no drama. The postponement to a later date of the trip to France by the Algerian President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, initially scheduled for May 2 and 3, confirms the extent to which the relationship between Paris and Algiers lacks fluidity, still handicapped by a good dose of reciprocal misunderstandings. The scope of this postponement of a long-awaited state visit – the first by an Algerian president since 2000 – is however minimized on both sides.
Emmanuel Macron and his Algerian counterpart should, moreover, talk on the phone on Sunday April 23 to agree on a new date. Mention is made, from a French source, of the deadline for “finer” or ” early June “In any case “before summer if possible”. If the controversy is not on the agenda, the two capitals unofficially advance different explanations for this upheaval in the calendar.
According to the Algerian press citing government sources, the postponement would be linked to the social climate in France, in particular the “Spectrum of Troubles” around 1is-May. “The Elysée not wanting to compromise this visit which promised to be historic (…) would have expressed his wish to postpone this meeting “, writes the daily L’Expression by drawing a parallel with the visit of the King of England, Charles III, postponed at the end of March. Another reason put forward by this newspaper is the “lack of preparation of files”, both parties having “wished for more time” to clear the ground for the visit.
The version is significantly different from the French side, where any parallel with the visit of Charles III is rejected. The adjournment, it is specified, is the initiative of the Algerians. “It’s their decision”, says a source involved in the preparations for the visit. Algiers seemed to fear, adds this source, the possible anti-regime demonstrations of fringes of the Algerian diaspora in France on the sidelines of the ceremonies, in particular on May 3, World Press Freedom Day. It is also pointed out in Paris that the preparations for the visit had been disrupted by the “Bouraoui affair”, which had frozen all contact between the two capitals for several weeks.
Algerian opposition journalist, Amira Bouraoui had joined France in early February from Tunisia, where she had taken refuge after a conviction in Algeria. Claiming his French nationality – Mme Bouraoui is binational – French diplomacy mobilized to wrest from the Tunisian president, Kaïs Saïed, the green light to let her go to France. Such an intervention angered the Algerian regime, which saw in it a “exfiltration” under a “act of barbouzerie”. The crisis had cost six precious weeks of preparations for the visit.
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