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Casablanca – Only a few days before Emmanuel Macron’s scheduled visit to Algeria, a coalition of apparently pro-regime Algerian associations has urged the French president to “assume his responsibilities” regarding Morocco and Algerian dissidents exiled in France, if he wants to succeed in his professed ambition of achieving reconciliation between France and Algeria.
“We ask the President of the French Republic to assume his responsibilities towards these suspicious organizations supported by the circles of dirty money, international terrorist organizations, and the evil neighbor Morocco,” the official Algerian news agency APS quoted the organizations’ joint statements as saying.
Without revealing their names, APS reported that the “group of national organizations and associations” also asked the French president to cooperate with Algeria on the repatriation to the North African country of regime dissidents.
The statement described the dissidents as leaders of “terrorist associations” masquerading as pro-democracy activists. While claiming to be fighting for democracy and the rule of law in Algeria, the statement said, the associations spread “hate and provocation” while undermining “Algeria’s stability.”
It added, “Following our meeting held on August 22, 2022, and on the occasion of the upcoming visit of the French President to Algeria, we call on the President of the French Republic to put an end to intrusive associations, operating under the guise of democracy, the defense of human rights and freedom of expression.”
Read also: ‘Smear Campaign’: Algerian Media Outraged by France, Canada Travel Notices on Algeria
The coalition concluded their joint statement by insisting that their main aim is to contribute to strengthening Algerian-French ties, which are “built on mutual trust and respect for the future of both peoples and their common interests.”
This approach, they believe, is what will make President Macron’s and his delegation’s visit a success.
Coming after several months of turmoil between Algiers and Paris, Macron’s visit to Algeria is scheduled for August 25-27.
For the coalition of pro-regime Algerian associations, however, the visit of the French president can only be considered a success if Paris agrees to side with Algeria in its historical feud with Morocco, in addition to repatriating Algerian dissidents in exile in France.
The main argument of the Algerian associations’ statement lends considerable credence to Tahar Ben Jelloun’s warning of the perils of Macron’s apparent appeasement of the Algerian regime.
Lamenting France’s increasingly decried, newfound visa policy toward Moroccan travelers, the celebrated Moroccan writer argued that Macron appears to be pursuing a wrong-headed Maghreb diplomacy premised on ditching strategic relations with Morocco while seeking reconciliation with Algeria over the troubled legacy of French colonialism in Algeria.
The French president is “obsessed with Algeria and believes that he will succeed in cleaning up Franco-Algerian relations,” Benjeloun wrote. And he warned: “Macron is mistaken. Algeria’s military regime, which holds on to what he himself has called ‘the memorial rent,’ will give him nothing. It will maintain the system of guilt until the end. If he makes this trip, it is because he has not understood the mechanism of a system that makes no concessions.”
