The diplomatic war between France and Algeria continues: writer Boualem Sansal reveals that his Algerian nationality has been revoked
Following his recent appointment as a member of the Académie Française, Sansal reveals in a talk that his Algerian nationality has been revoked
- ‘Only a French citizen’
- Symbol of Franco-Algerian confrontation
- Arguments for a break
- Carnations on the Seine
France and Algeria continue their diplomatic confrontation in the figure of writer Boualem Sansal. Just days after his appointment to fill one of the vacant seats at the Académie Française was announced, the writer himself revealed that he had been stripped of his Algerian nationality.
‘Only a French citizen’
In a talk with secondary school students at the Edgar-Quintet Institute in Paris's 9th arrondissement on Thursday 5 February, Sansal explained, to the surprise of his audience, that he had been ‘stripped of his Algerian nationality’ three months after being released from prison and that ‘right now, I am only a French citizen’.
According to the French newspaper Le Figaro, the writer had been invited to give this talk at the Edgar-Quintet Institute by the president of the Île-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, at a meeting aimed at discussing caricatures and democracy with the students.
However, the meeting took a different turn after Sansal's confession, explaining that ‘there are probably still some formalities pending, but in reality, I am now only French’.
Symbol of Franco-Algerian confrontation
Over the last two years, Boualem Sansal has become a symbol of the tensions in bilateral relations between Algeria and France, the two nationalities of the renowned writer.
Gone are the excellent personal relations between the leaders of both countries, Emmanuel Macron and Abdelmadjid Tebboune (who described themselves as ‘brothers’), which were abruptly broken on 14 June 2024 in the Italian city of Bari, where the G7 summit was being held. On that day, Macron explained to Tebboune that he was going to recognise Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara, which led to the Algerian leader's definitive departure.
Just a few months later, on 16 November 2024, Boualem Sansal was arrested on his arrival in Algiers from Paris and subsequently imprisoned. His statements a month earlier on the issue of the sovereignty of the Sahara were the excuse used by the Tebboune government to sentence him to five years in prison on charges of ‘undermining national unity’.
It would take a year, until November 2025, for the German government's efforts to succeed, in view of the deteriorating health of the imprisoned writer, for Algeria to grant a pardon to Sansal, who was transferred to a hospital in Berlin.
Arguments for a break
Although the issue of sovereignty over Western Sahara, with France's support for Morocco's autonomy plan, has been presented as the main cause of the break with Algeria, there are in fact other points of friction that have led to the diplomatic rift between the two countries, with the withdrawal of their respective ambassadors.
Curiously, some analysts explain that the Sahara issue has disappeared from the Algerian agenda without a trace, which could mean a strategic retreat or even an acknowledgement that they had underestimated Morocco's position and the support it could garner.
Instead, Algeria's explanations for the break with France have shifted towards historical claims, such as France's questioning of Algeria's existence as a state before 1830; its failure to recognise colonial crimes; or behind-the-scenes provocations, such as receiving members of the Algerian opposition in Paris or unilaterally reducing visas for Algerian citizens.
Carnations on the Seine
Just a few weeks after the break with France in Bari, on 26 July 2024, during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, the Algerian delegation made a significant symbolic gesture by throwing red carnations into the waters of the Seine in memory of the Algerians who were murdered and thrown into the river in the so-called Paris Massacre of 1961.
The positions of the former allies are so far apart that not even the intervention of the former minister and losing candidate to Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential elections, Ségolène Royal, at the head of the Franco-Algerian Association, has managed to bring the two sides closer together.
The withdrawal of Boualem Sansal's Algerian passport, a figure who unites the two countries through culture, is another significant symptom of an illness that, for the moment, seems to have no cure.