French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin announced on Sunday that he wanted to “abolish” the 2013 Franco-Algerian intergovernmental agreement that allows the Algerian nomenklatura to travel to France without a visa, in the context of worsening tensions between the two countries.
“There is a 2013 agreement which is a government agreement that allows those who have an official passport, an Algerian diplomatic passport, there are thousands of them”, to “come to France without a visa to be able to move around freely”, he explained on the LCI channel.
“Touching the leaders (…) seems to me more intelligent, more effective and it can be done very quickly”, he judged, pleading to “abolish this facility”.
This “retaliatory measure” would not affect “the 10% of our compatriots who have ties of blood, soil, culture” with France, added Mr. Darmanin.
Relations between the two countries, already tumultuous, have worsened in recent days following the arrest in Montpellier, in the south of France, of a 59-year-old Algerian influencer, “Doualemn”, after a contentious video on TikTok.
Put on a plane on Thursday for Algeria, he was sent back to France the same evening. His detention was extended by 26 days on Sunday by a French judge.
On Friday, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said that “Algeria was seeking to humiliate France”.
This expulsion was “arbitrary and abusive”, the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday, rejecting French accusations of “escalation” and “humiliation”.
“It is a sovereign country that intends to say it and they are right, we must respect them. But they must respect us too. Algeria must respect France, France must respect Algeria”, stressed Mr. Darmanin.
“We are in a very critical moment and this humiliation that they want to make us suffer is not acceptable,” he continued.
Former French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal had called for “denouncing” the 1968 agreement, which gives Algerians a special status in terms of movement, residence and employment in France.
This agreement, “we can denounce it, revise it, it has been revised four times, it has also become a little obsolete,” added Mr. Darmanin.
Another point of contention between France and Algeria concerns the arrest in Algiers of the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, 75, who is ill.
“He must regain his freedom as quickly as possible, I think Algeria would be honored to free him,” said Mr. Darmanin.