A visit focused on “youth and the future”, with the aim of “rebuilding” a relationship, damaged since the arrival at the Elysée Palace of Emmanuel Macron, in 2017. This Thursday, the President of the Republic begins a trip of three days to Algeria, accompanied by a large delegation, including seven ministers.
This is the second time that Emmanuel Macron has visited Algeria as president, after a first visit in December 2017, at the start of his first five-year term. The first French president born after the Algerian war (1954-1962), he has never stopped trying to normalize relations between the two peoples since his election in 2017.
memory question
A trip coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the end of the war and the proclamation of Algeria’s independence, and which “will contribute to deepening the bilateral relationship for the future (…) to strengthen Franco-Algerian cooperation with a view to regional issues and continue the work of appeasing memories”, the Elysée specified on August 20.
Still a candidate, Emmanuel Macron struck a chord by describing colonization as a “crime against humanity”, and since then he has multiplied the commemorative gestures. Algeria had not engaged in this work of memory and deplored that the French president did not express “repentance” for the 132 years of French colonization.
After months of tension, Emmanuel Macron then criticized the Algerian power for exploiting the “commemorative income” of the war of independence to maintain its legitimacy and wondered about the existence of an Algerian nation before colonization. An issue that also weighs heavily on internal politics on both sides of the Mediterranean: seven million French people are linked in one way or another to Algeria.
In this spirit of commemorative appeasement, Emmanuel Macron will go, in the company of his counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune, to the Martyrs’ Monument, a high place in Algerian memory of the war of independence against France, before a face-to-face meeting and a dinner at the palace. presidential.
Autre enjeu de la visita: la question des visas accordés à l’Algérie, do not name this réduit of 50%, comme pour le Maroc, pour mettre la pression sur des gouvernements jugés trop peu coopératifs dans la réadmission de leurs ressortissants expelsés de France. The two capitals want to “advance” on this issue, says the Elysee.
The gas, unofficial reason
But, according to observers, the visit of Emmanuel Macron would have another, more unofficial and urgent objective for Paris. Since the start of the war in Ukraine in late February, Algeria, one of the world’s top 10 gas producers, has been in hot demand by Europeans in their rush to reduce their dependence on Russian gas. In particular, Algeria has become Italy’s main gas supplier in recent months, through the Transmed gas pipeline that passes through Tunisia.
“This cooperation is of great interest to Algeria, which announced, even before the Ukraine crisis, its desire to increase its production and supply of gas to Europe. Especially since the crisis is encouraging Europeans to search for Algerian gas”, analysis for BFMTV Brahim Oumansour, Iris associate researcher and specialist in Algeria.
A negotiation not without risks for Paris, as Laurent Neumann, a political columnist for our antenna, points out, who would have no interest in “getting angry” with its European allies, also in search of an alternative to Russian gas. Especially since Algeria’s capacity to supply France is not necessarily self-evident: according to Olivier Appert, energy advisor to the French Institute for International Relations (Ifri), “Algeria’s exports in 2005 were 65 billion m3; today we are in 41 billion. We must reverse a trend that is stabilizing or even declining.”
On the side of the Elysee, it is stated: Algerian gas “is not really the object of the visit” of Emmanuel Macron.
Source: BFM TV
