Emmanuel Macron calls for officially suspending the 2013 agreement with Algeria on “visa exemptions” for “official and diplomatic passports”

France must act “With more firmness and determination” With regard to Algeria, exhorted on Wednesday August 6, Emmanuel Macron, who invokes the “Reserved spell” in Boualem Sansal and Christophe Gleizes to ask the French government “Additional decisions”.

Among the measures requested from the government, the head of state calls for suspending “Formally” The 2013 agreement with Algiers “Regarding visa exemptions on official and diplomatic passports”.

“France must be strong and be respected”argues the French head of state in a letter to his Prime Minister, François Bayrou, published by Le Figaro. “She can only obtain her from her partners if herself shows them the respect she demands from them. This basic rule applies to Algeria too ”he still writes, in a missive that marks a new stage in the acute diplomatic crisis that the two countries are going through.

To justify this screw tour, Emmanuel Macron first mentions the imprisonments of the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, sentenced to five years of prison in particular for “Involvement in national unity”and the French journalist Christophe Gleizes, sentenced to seven years in prison in Algeria for “Apology of terrorism”. But, it also refers to “Failure by Algeria of its obligations” in migration matters, as well as “The cessation of the cooperation of the eighteen Algerian consulates present on our soil with the state services”.

De facto situation

The call to suspend “Formally” The 2013 agreement with Algiers “Regarding visa exemptions on official and diplomatic passports” Act a factual situation: the Minister of French Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, announced, on May 14, “The dismissal in Algeria of all holding agents of diplomatic passports who would not currently have a visa”. France then reacted to a decision “Unjustified and unjustifiable” Algiers to expel French officials, he said.

Emmanuel Macron also asks the government to use ” immediately “ of a provision of the 2024 immigration law, the “VISA-READMISSION LEVER (LVR)”Who “Allows you to refuse short stay visas for service and diplomatic passport holders, as are long -stay visas for all types of applicants”.

The President also asked his Prime Minister “To instruct the Minister of the Interior”Bruno Retailleau, holding a hard line towards Algiers, “To find the ways as quickly as possible and [les] means of useful cooperation with its Algerian counterpart ”. Il “Also hopes that, faced with the delinquency of Algerian individuals in an irregular situation, the Minister of the Interior and his services act without rest and without respite”.

“In the same spirit, when you consider that the conditions are met with regard to our diplomatic system, you will be able to authorize the three Algerian consuls already present in our territory to exercise their mandate, however demanding a resumption of migratory cooperation. »» “Only this recovery will allow us to admit five other consuls awaiting authorization”still writes the French president.

“The response of the Algerian authorities to our requirements for migration and consular cooperation will determine the rest of our steps”continues Emmanuel Macron, adding that, “As soon as the dialogue has been restored, we will also have to deal with other sensitive bilateral files”citing “Hospital debt”, “The conducts of certain Algerian State services on the national territory, but also the unanswered memorial issues”.