France-Algeria ties due for re-set as Macron prepares to visit

Record ID: 1686080

  • Title: France-Algeria ties due for re-set as Macron prepares to visit
  • Date: 24th August 2022
  • Summary: ALGIERS, ALGERIA (AUGUST 24, 2022) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TRAFFIC AND PEOPLE ON THE STREETS CONSTANTINE, ALGERIA (AUGUST 23, 2022) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRANCO-ALGERIAN CITIZEN, MAKHLOUF BOUGATHOUCHE, SAYING: “Concerning the relation between the two countries (referring to Algeria and France), I think there will be progress in the next few years but the course will be slow. I think we already have to start by solving the issue between both people, both states, for real progress towards an economic change, cultural, linguistic. These two countries that are very similar in many aspect have many things in common.” ALGIERS, ALGERIA (AUGUST 24, 2022) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING PAST BIRDS (SOUNDBITE) (French) RETIRED ALGERIAN, NOURREDDINE AYOUB, SAYING: “What I am hoping from him (referring to French President Emmanuel Macron) is to carry out with what he said at the beginning about good relations with Algeria. He is the most welcome and we will not forget what he said when he was asked about the war in Algeria (referring to Macron’s comment in 2017 when he, an a visit to Algeria as a candidate, said France’s 132-year colonial rule was a “crime against humanity.”).”
  • Embargoed: 7th September 2022 16:55
  • Keywords: Algeria France war
  • Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • City: VARIOUS LOCATIONS
  • Country: Algeria
  • Topics: Africa,Conflicts/War/Peace,Military Conflicts
  • Reuters ID: LVA006013323082022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: French President Emmanuel Macron hopes his three-day trip to Algeria from Thursday (August 25) will end a diplomatic row and allow him to develop his relationship with young Algerians, but the North African country's leaders and citizens may prove hard to win over.
    President Abdelmadjid Tebboune wants solid investment commitments - which seem unlikely to be announced this week - and for Macron to atone for comments he made last year about Algeria's history and its ruling elite.
    When Macron last visited Algeria in 2017 he was warmly greeted by young Algerians eager to contrast his youth with the old age of their own leaders and pleased he had described French colonial rule there as a "crime against humanity."
    Macron seems keen to build on that goodwill this week, with a planned visit to commemorate Algerian "martyrs" of independence from France, and to a breakdance show and a shop famed for its role in North African "Rai" pop music.
    But Macron's long-stated desire to move on from the ugly legacy of French colonial rule in Algeria, and his frustration at what he sees as the Algerian authorities' obsession with it, caused a big breach last year that may overshadow his trip.
    In comments on the election trail, he suggested Algeria's national identity was forged under French rule and that the country's leadership had rewritten the history of the independence struggle based on a hatred of France.
    That led Algeria's leaders to withdraw their ambassador for consultations and to close their airspace to French aircraft - complicating transport routes for France's military mission in the Sahel.
    For France, better relations with its former colony are growing more important because an energy shortage due to Russia's war in Ukraine has raised demand for North African gas, and because of growing migration across the Mediterranean.
    (Production: Ramzi Boudina, Michaela Cabrera, Florent Bardos, Emilie Madi, Cynthia Karam, Yara Abi Nader, Yiming Woo)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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