Blow to Algeria: the French Academy elects writer Boualem Sansal as a member
The writer was elected by 25 votes out of 26, just three months after being released from an Algerian prison where he had been held for a year for his criticism of the Tebboune regime
France has dealt Algeria a severe diplomatic blow through culture. Just three months after Algerian writer Boualem Sansal was released from prison in Algeria, where he had been held for a year, he has acquired the status of ‘immortal’ after being elected as a member of the French Academy.
‘Immortal’
This is a huge honour for a French-language writer, as the Academy is the highest institution responsible for regulating, protecting and perfecting the language. It enjoys enormous prestige and tradition: it was founded in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu and its aim is to establish clear rules for the language, compile its official dictionary and preserve its purity. It is made up of 40 members, who are known as ‘the immortals’.
The election of Sansal, 75, was almost unanimous, with 25 votes in favour out of 26 electors, enabling him to fill the seat left vacant by lawyer and historian Jean-Denis Prédin, who died in 2021.
The institution has recognised Sansal's literary and intellectual career, with more than thirty works, including ‘2084: The End of the World’, inspired by Orwell, and numerous essays on the French language, including ‘The French Language: Let's Talk About It!’, published in 2024.
Sansal, who obtained French citizenship in 2024, thus joins prominent figures in French literature such as Amin Maalouf, Eric Orsenna, Jean-Christophe Rufin and Chantal Thomass.
The French Academy will induct Sansal during a private, closed-door ceremony, in which he will be invested as an academician and receive the traditional 'habit vert', or 'green suit': a uniform created in 1801 to highlight the institution's distinction, consisting of a black frock coat embroidered with olive branches in green and gold thread, trousers, a bicorn hat, a cape and a personalised sword, which distinguishes the 'immortals'.
Challenge to Algeria
The recognition by the French Academy has been interpreted in diplomatic circles and by foreign policy analysts as a challenge to the Algerian regime of Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who imprisoned the writer in November 2024 for statements critical of the Algerian regime.
Algerian security forces accused Sansal of adhering to the thesis that colonial France partitioned the Maghreb in a way that favoured Algeria to the detriment of Morocco.
In addition, Sansal actively participated in the 2019 demonstrations that led to the resignation of former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and has been highly critical of radical Islamism, going so far as to claim that ‘Islam is incompatible with democracy’ and that ‘Islam and Islamism are the same thing.’
Arrested in 2024
Sansal was arrested in mid-November 2024 upon his arrival in Algiers and imprisoned after making statements in an interview with the French media outlet Frontiers, in which he questioned the Algerian borders inherited from colonialism, repeating historical claims related to the Sahara and the lands of Greater Morocco, which Algeria considered a great insult.
These statements earned him a five-year prison sentence on charges of undermining national unity. However, Sansal's international prestige, coupled with his advanced age, ultimately made him a symbol of Algeria's repression of freedom of expression.
The wave of international diplomatic pressure on the Tebboune regime culminated in a personal request by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, to pardon Sansal and allow him to travel to Germany for medical treatment.
In November 2025, one year after his imprisonment, the Algerian government granted him a pardon and proceeded to release him.