Algerian press lashes out at France for its criticism of Tebboune's re-election
Algerian media accuse the French press of being a ‘professional media chorus’ against Algeria
The Algerian regime has launched a campaign against France through its official media, triggered by French criticism of the electoral process that ended with the re-election, by an overwhelming majority, of Abdelmadjid Tebboune as Algeria's president.
This reaction on the part of the Algerian official press is also related to the change of position on the part of Emmanuel Macron's government regarding the sovereignty of Western Sahara, which was staged on 30 July.
Coverage of the Algerian elections
Algeria's official media have criticised the news coverage by their French counterparts during the recent elections, which ended on Sunday 8 September with the re-election of Tebboune, who won 94.7% of the vote.
His two rivals, the Islamist Abdelali Hassani Cherif, with 3.2%, and the Socialist Youcef Aouchiche, with 2.2%, were a long way behind the incumbent president.
Reports in the French media questioning the fairness of the electoral process have not gone down well in Algeria. The French press underlines the fact that Tebboune had little real competition and that the other two candidates allowed to participate did not have significant popular support.
The low turnout of Algerian citizens in the presidential elections, less than half of the electorate, has also been highlighted, reflecting the Algerian people's disagreement with the current system, the lack of pluralism and the absence of prominent political figures.
APS reaction
The Algerian government's reaction, through the official media, has not been long in coming: the official Algerian news agency, Algeria Press Service (APS), pointed out that the French press ‘has become a professional media chorus’ in hostile practices against Algeria.
In a harsh statement entitled ‘You French: Algeria is not your protectorate’, published on Monday, 9 September, the agency described the television channel France 24, which collected the opinions of Tebboune's opponents abroad, as ‘a rubbish channel’ and added that ‘the main concern of the French press is to try to darken the picture by relying on a tone of intimidation full of lies. This group is blatantly attacking all the transformations that Algeria is undergoing. We have witnessed this since the election of President Tebboune’.
The Algerian agency also described the government of current president Emmanuel Macron as ‘one of the darkest periods in the history of the Fifth Republic’.
The information disseminated by the APS also uses the French colonialist past as one of the reasons for the Western media's hostility towards Algeria: ‘Algeria, from which you were expelled, is a country of freedoms, a stable and prosperous country, far from being a colony of misery’, they point out.
The official media justifies this supposed economic prosperity with reports issued by international organisations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and even compares it favourably to the economic situation in France: ‘Algeria in the 2020s is a country full of legitimate and stable institutions, while France has become an ungovernable country. At a time when Algeria is still a debt-free country, France is drowning in a sea of debts, which exceed 3 billion’.
France's change of rudder in the Sahara
In addition to the elections, the angry reaction of the Algerian official press against France must be interpreted in a political context, taking into account the recent change undertaken by Macron's government with regard to the Western Sahara issue.
It should be recalled that on 30 July last, coinciding with the celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the reign of Mohammed VI, President Macron staged Paris's change of position on the Sahara in a letter addressed to the Moroccan monarch, in which he stated that ‘the present and future of Western Sahara fall within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty. France intends to act consistently with this position both nationally and internationally'.
This change of position was a diplomatic earthquake for Algeria, which had warned the French authorities days earlier not to follow in Spain's footsteps in favour of Morocco on the Western Sahara issue.
In fact, on the same day that the contents of Macron's letter to Mohammed VI became known, Algeria announced the withdrawal of its ambassador in Paris, Said Moussi, noting that ‘Algeria's diplomatic representation in France now depends on a chargé d'affaires’.
It so happens that Said Moussi himself was the Algerian ambassador in Madrid who was recalled for consultations in March 2022, following the Spanish government's support for the Moroccan solution to the Western Sahara conflict.
Now, the Algerian government is trying to regain its international weight, in the face of the avalanche of international support for the Moroccan proposal for the Sahara, at the cost of launching its official media against France.