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Emmanuel Macron accuses Algeria that the country’s history is based on hatred of France. The rulers of the North African country strike back.
Paris / Algiers – Tensions between Algeria and the former colonial power France escalated openly over the weekend. First of all, Algeria announced on Saturday (October 2nd) that it would call its ambassador Mohamed Antar-Daoud back from Paris for “consultations”.
On Sunday it became known that Algiers, the capital of Algeria, has closed its airspace to French military aircraft. France uses Algerian airspace for flights towards the Sahel zone, where French troops from the anti-jihadist Operation Barkhane are deployed. According to the French military, however, this step does not lead to problems, the flight crews only have to adjust their flight plans. Incidentally, the Bundeswehr is also deployed in Mali.
Tensions between France and Algeria: statements by Macron “irresponsible”
The presidential office in Algeria justifies this step by saying that it forbids “any interference” in its internal affairs. The “not denied” statements by French President Emmanuel Macron are “irresponsible”. Prior to this, the tightening of the French visa regulations for people from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia caused displeasure.
The comments that are causing outrage in Algeria are according to the French newspaper Le Monde killed at a meeting with descendants of fighters from the Algerian war in 1962. Macron stated that in Algeria the “official history” of the country had been “completely rewritten”. It is not based on “facts” but on a “discourse based on hatred of France”.
Tensions between France and Algeria: Stricter visa regulations are only aimed at the management class
Macron also said that his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmajid Tebboune, was “trapped in a very tough system”. This was weakened by the democracy movement, which led to the overthrow of Tebboune’s recently deceased predecessor Abdelaziz Bouteflika in 2019. As Le Monde The French President also reported that the tightening of visa regulations would not affect students and business people. She should “annoy people from the ruling classes” who have got used to easily obtaining visas.
The Algerian newspaper El Watan rated Macron’s remarks as “hard” and spoke of a “derailment”. On the website of the French-speaking medium 24 h Algérie it said that Macron, like all so-called historians and intellectuals, “has shown unwillingness to the right and the extreme right to recognize the French colonial heritage and the serious colonial crimes committed in Algeria and elsewhere in Africa.” (mhof)
List of rubric lists: © Gonzalo Fuentes / dpa / picture alliance