Bruno Retailleau will resign if France gives in to Algeria

‘As long as I am convinced that I am useful and have the means to be so, I will continue to mobilise,’ Retailleau told the French newspaper Le Parisien moments before confirming that he would leave the government if Algeria maintains its refusal to collaborate with France on immigration and deportations.

The positions between Algiers and Paris are increasingly distant. Tensions have increased since last week, when the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, met at the Elysée with the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, to give him a list of 60 Algerian citizens residing in France under the Obligation to Leave French Territory (OQTF) regime.

Such is the situation within the French Cabinet that Retailleau announced he would resign if France gave in to Algerian demands to reject all the citizens that Paris wants out of its borders, including the perpetrator of the attacks in the city of Mulhouse, who had up to 10 requests for expulsion to Algeria, all of them rejected at the border by the authorities of the North African country. 

In recent months, Retailleau has repeatedly insisted that France is working to resolve all the expulsion requests, but without success in all of them, as the Algerian authorities denied each and every one.

‘If I were asked to give in on this matter, which is so important for the security of the French people, I would obviously refuse,’ explained the Minister of the Interior.

This has caused a certain weariness among the French authorities, especially Bruno Retailleau, who has confirmed that if the situation continues he will present his letter of resignation. 

‘It is time to change course with Algeria. We need to make a show of force,’ said the interior minister in February, noting that his country has been “quite kind” to the authorities of the North African country. 

On the list of requests from the Minister of the Interior is also the revision of the 1968 agreements whereby Algerian citizens have privileges over citizens of other nationalities entering the country in terms of residence, status and work.

After his meeting with Emmanuel Macron, Retailleau said that there was the same indignation within the French government, as this is about the relationship between two countries that have always enjoyed a ‘super cooperation’. Reinforcing the position of Macron and Retailleau, Prime Minister François Bayrou ruled out that there are differences of opinion on the matter.