A relief, after a year of detention and news that disturbed his health, for Boualem Sansal, the French-Algerian writer was arrested at an Algerian airport a year ago and sentenced to five years in prison. Algeria’s president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, “agreed” to grant him a pardon by responding positively to France’s insistence on a year of “secret” negotiations or intellectual mobilization in Paris. With relations between Paris and Algeria having been frozen for some time, the pardon arrived within days in response to a request from German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier: “The President – we read in an Algerian press release – responded to this question, which attracted his attention for its humanitarian nature and motivation, regarding a pardon in favor of Boualem Sansal”. Sansal had been convicted on charges of “attacking national unity” following an interview given to the French right-wing newspaper Frontières, in which he claimed that Algeria inherited territories such as Oran and Mascara, which once belonged to Morocco, during French colonization.
The controversial statement comes at a time when diplomatic relations between Paris and Algeria are already high. In his home country, the author did not find consensus among intellectuals, who considered him in line with France’s right-wing positions on immigration and Islam, and expressed sympathy for the claims of Morocco, Algeria’s great rival in the region. Regarding Paris-Algiers relations, tensions rose sharply after the arrival of Républicains in government and in particular the appointment in 2024 of Bruno Retailleau as Minister of the Interior. At the same time, Macron’s recognition of an autonomy plan “under Moroccan sovereignty” for Western Sahara has worsened relations between the two countries. Faced with pre-existing bilateral tensions over the issue of immigration control and security, the Algerian service’s actions against opponents living in France and the expulsion of Algerian citizens to their home country, which has repeatedly rejected them, have exacerbated the situation.
Macron, following the announcement of the pardon, thanked Steinmeier for Germany’s “good services” to Algeria, but also “noted the humanitarian gesture of Algerian President Tebboune”, thanked him and made himself “willing to exchange ideas with him on issues of interest to our two countries”. Currently, there has been no direct contact between the two heads of state. Meanwhile, a plane leaves Berlin for Algiers. In the afternoon, he had to leave back for Germany with Boualem Sansal, who would be treated at a large hospital in the German capital. Steinmeier’s relationship with Tebboune has always been good after the Algerian president, on two occasions, spent long periods in hospital centers in Germany to treat some Covid complications. Regarding the future of Paris’ relations with its former colony, diplomatic sources in the French capital speak of the possibility of a first timid attempt at “reconciliation” when Macron and Tebboune meet on a “neutral plane”, on November 22 and 23 in Johannesburg at the next G20 summit.
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