Tebboune finally secures official visit to Paris
Since the last-minute cancellation of the Algerian president's official visit to Paris on 2 and 5 May 2023, the Elysée seems to have turned the page on the warming of Franco-Algerian relations, given the recurrent tensions between the two countries. In Algiers, people like to play the spoilt child. A former French colony for more than a century, Algeria not only seeks to make the former colonial power feel guilty for all the misdeeds caused by an occupation that was not all bad, but has turned it into a business that it manages very badly.
Tired, Paris had to turn its back on a partner that no longer knew what it wanted. He turns a deaf ear to all the sounds coming from Algiers. Good or bad. The French are certain that nothing serious is happening on the Algerian side, so fickle and fickle is it. Algiers shows not the slightest willingness to carry out jointly agreed projects.
Paris went so far as to send half its government to Algiers. In vain. Less than two months after Emmanuel Macron's visit to Algeria (at the end of August 2022), Elisabeth Borne, then Prime Minister of France, travelled to Algiers on 7 October, accompanied by no less than 16 ministers. The delegation included heavyweights such as Bruno Le Maire (Economy), Gérald Darmanin (Interior), Éric Dupond-Moretti (Justice), as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, and her colleague from the Ministry of Education, Pap Ndiaye.
The French delegation hoped to give substance to the famous Algiers Declaration for a "renewed partnership" between the two countries. This declaration was signed by Emmanuel Macron and Abdelmadjid Tebboune at the end of their 3-day visit, which included a tour of Oran that provoked much jealousy in the upper echelons of Algerian power
This high-level Algerian-French intergovernmental committee did not produce any concrete projects. The meeting came to nothing, as did the episode of the drafting of the common history of the two countries by a joint commission. On the French side, Benjamin Stora, a talented historian who knows Algeria very well because he saw it being born, was chosen for this task, while Algiers chose an obscure adviser who has never dealt with history and has no publications to his name. His name was Abdelmadjid Chikhi.
In response to the paper presented by Benjamin Stora, the Algerian responded with disdain: "We cannot write our common history together", he declared to explain his blank paper. Instead, he took to the rostrum of the Algerian parliament to tell the story of a swan shot by a French soldier during the war of liberation, making him a martyr and hero of that war. It was a bizarre story that provoked unparalleled hilarity among Algerians.
The delegation led by Mrs Anne-Marie Descôtes, who was accompanied by her closest advisers, made it clear that, on the French side, everyone was working hard behind the scenes to ensure the success of the visit of the tenant of the El Mouradia Palace. All the details have been reviewed and the plan for the visit has been worked out as follows:
In accordance with the protocol for state visits, the Algerian President will be received at the airport by Emmanuel Macron before travelling by helicopter to the Esplanade des Invalides. Escorted by the Republican Guard, he is also expected to walk along the Champs-Elysées in the colours of the Algerian national flag. He is expected to stay at the Hôtel de Marigny, the residence of foreign leaders during state visits. Other highlights of the visit will include a speech to the National Assembly and a state dinner. A dream programme for Tebboune. Unfortunately for him, the day after this meeting, on 17 April, Ahmed Attaf, Algerian Foreign Minister, announced in a telephone call to his French counterpart Catherine Colonna that "President Tebboune wishes to postpone his visit to a later date". The reason: the "deliverables" were not sufficient. In other words, there will not be much to do during this visit.
We have had to wait more than three months to hear the Algerian president justify this cancellation, which he himself described as a postponement. During a meeting with representatives of the Algerian press on 5 August, he declared in this regard: "We are waiting for the programme of this visit from the French Presidency. It is still on hold. He added: "We have not agreed on the programme of this visit. A state visit has conditions and must produce results. It is not a tourist visit. An argument that hardly holds water, given that in the four years he has been in the El-Mouradia palace, President Tebboune's record does not contain a single achievement, however modest.
"The reasons for the cancellation of Abdelmadjid Tebboune's state visit to Paris must be sought elsewhere," confides an analyst well-versed in the ins and outs of Algerian power. "In China, Russia and Portugal, Tebboune achieved nothing concrete. The agreements signed during these visits remained mere pious hopes. Not because of the partners, but simply because the Algerian economy is suffering an alarming stagnation that the Algerian regime's leaders refuse to recognise," adds our analyst.
"The cancellation of the visit to Paris did not come from Tebboune, but from those really responsible. And everyone knows it. If it were up to him, he would be clamouring to go on a state visit and experience all the pomp and circumstance that goes with it," concludes our source.
The Algerian head of state was clearly keen to make this famous visit when, on New Year's Eve 2024, he wished his French counterpart well. These wishes were expressed personally by telephone. It was an unprecedented event that Tebboune did not hesitate to write into the annals of Algerian-French relations. It was the ideal occasion to raise the subject of his visit to Paris.
A little more than two months after this communication, the telephone rang at the El-Mouradia Palace. On the other end of the line was Emmanuel Macron. The Algerian president was delighted. He clung to the phone to talk about a wide range of subjects, according to a communiqué from the Presidency of the Algerian Republic, picked up by all the Algerian media. "During the call, the President of the Republic expressed his deep concern about the evolution of the situation in occupied Palestine, in particular in Gaza". The communiqué added that "the two presidents also discussed common economic prospects that would benefit both countries, particularly in the fields of agriculture, energy, rare earths and the railway industry". And to conclude with what the Algerian government considers the most important point, 'finally, the two presidents agreed that the President of the Republic would pay an official visit to France in late September or early October, the official date of which will be fixed later'.
He has just won the trophy. Despite the serious warming of Franco-Moroccan relations, marked by the frank and unambiguous position taken on the Sahara issue, President Tebboune was determined to visit France before the end of his mandate, scheduled for early December. The French will not be reproached for all they have done with their "Moroccan enemy", which has shown great intelligence in managing the crisis that has plagued its relations with Paris.
Having lost everything and gained nothing by increasing tensions with France, the old leaders of the "new Algeria", by sending Tebboune to parade on the Champs Elysées, are seeking above all to win France's silence in the upcoming presidential elections, which, like all previous elections, will be marked by electoral fraud and the appointment of a puppet at the head of the Algerian state. And what would France gain in such a scenario? Time will tell.
