Retailleau returns to the fray: visa review and asset freeze for Algerian citizens residing in France

The truce between Algeria and France is over. After months of disputes and a diplomatic standoff, both countries are once again escalating the conflict following proposals by French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau to the French Council, which include freezing assets and reviewing visa policies for Algerian citizens residing in French territory. 

According to the French authorities, this decision corresponds to the announcement by the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemning France's actions as a flagrant violation of international conventions and bilateral agreements. These measures will affect all Algerian citizens residing in France equally, regardless of whether they are senior officials, politicians, military or security officers, businesspeople or members of the diplomatic corps. 

Since the conflict began last November following the imprisonment in Algeria of French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who is suffering from cancer, a total of 44 people have been affected by the new ‘Retailleau laws’ and the list is expected to reach 80 people in the coming days. 

These measures are only the first step, as the Ministry of the Interior is reportedly considering stepping up action in response to Algeria's refusal to accept citizens residing in France who have been ordered to leave the country. 

However, there are contradictions within the Élysée Palace. While Retailleau maintains the rhetoric of ‘the end of good intentions and diplomatic will’, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has stated on several occasions that if goodwill comes to an end, then the diplomatic route is closed. Furthermore, in less than two weeks, three senior French officials have expressed dissenting opinions on the matter to the media. 

And they are not the only ones. The French Minister Delegate for Francophonie and International Partnerships, Mohamed Soilihi, said that ‘Paris has decided to abandon public hostility because it is a useless path, and condemnations only serve to aggravate the situation.’ 

Weeks earlier, French media reported that the assets of 18 Algerian figures, including senior presidential and military officials, had been frozen in France. Reports suggested that this was part of a broader plan to target up to 802 Algerian citizens with assets in the country. 

However, this series of interventions by members of the government has not dampened Retailleau's aspirations, who remains within the anti-Algerian rhetoric and continues to call on his own government to ‘return with firmness and not change its tone in the face of the pretensions of Abdelmadjid Tebboune's government.’ 

He emphasised these aspirations in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro, where he revealed that France ‘will refuse to recognise the passports of Algerian citizens’ and that it ‘will order the governors of the different regions of the country not to accept the documents’. 

The Algerian News Agency, which is dependent on the government, said that this is a serious violation of the rights of Algerian citizens and that the French minister's decision is ‘arbitrary, discriminatory and constitutes an abuse of power, as it explicitly contradicts French law itself. For its author, this statement has a clear political dimension, as well as being without legal basis and not based on any rule of French law’. Refusing to recognise them, as Retailleau has suggested, would violate individual rights and constitute another breach of France's bilateral obligations. 

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Algerian citizens remain in France, fearing that if the French government's decisions become more radical, they will be forced to return to their country.