Une provocation de plus !

One more provocation!

Macron’s letter to Bayrou about Algeria

The letter addressed by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to his Prime Minister, François Bayrou, about the visa policy applied to the Algerians, underlines the lack of respect for the commitments of France compared to the Algerian-French agreement of 1968 relating to the traffic, employment and stay in France of Algerian nationals and their families, but also the Alroccan Consual Convention in 1974 and Algerian-French of 2013 relating to the exemption from visas for holders of diplomatic and service passports. As a reminder, the Evian agreements of 1962 provided for free movement between Algeria and France, but they were quickly called into question until the adoption, on December 27, 1968, of an “agreement relating to the traffic, employment and stay in France of Algerian nationals and their families”. This agreement and an annexed protocol still set the general framework of the migratory regime between the two countries.
The 1968 agreement is part of the declaration of principle of the Evian agreements relating to economic and financial cooperation. It was then a question of providing a global and lasting solution to the problems relating to the traffic, employment and stay of Algerian nationals on French territory and to maintain a regular current of workers, which takes into account the volume of traditional Algerian immigration in France.
It was also a question of guaranteeing and ensuring the free movement of Algerian nationals going to France without intention to exercise a salaried professional activity.
The extreme French right calls for the revision, even the cancellation of this May 1968 agreement. In this regard, during its periodic interview with representatives of the national media, in October 2024, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, estimated that the call of certain parts in France to renegotiate the 1968 agreement was “a scarecrow and a political slogan of an extremist minority to Algeria ”. He assured that this agreement “in no way affects the quality of migration or the security of France”, stressing that any contrary allegation “is a untruth that participates in blackmail aimed at instilling hatred of Algeria in France”.
In addition, Algeria wanted to recall, once again, that it was historically at the origin of any request for the conclusion of a bilateral visa exemption agreement for the benefit of diplomatic and service passports. On many occasions, it was France, and it alone, which was at the origin of such a request. In addition, the Algerian authorities have noted that it was France, moreover, which has given itself the sole object of fixing the Algerian-French agreement of 1994 relating to the readmission of Algerian nationals living in France in France, an agreement of which it has distorted the reason for being and diverted the real objectives. And, they add, it is France, finally, which has freed itself from its duties contracted under the European Convention on Human Rights of 1950.
As a reminder, the convention for the safeguarding of human rights and fundamental freedoms, better known as the European Convention on Human Rights, was signed in Rome (Italy) on November 4, 1950 by twelve member states of the Council of Europe and entered into force on September 3, 1953. It was the first concretizing and making it binding certain of the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is also the first treaty to have created, in 1959, a supranational court, the European Court of Human Rights, to ensure compliance with the commitments of the States Parties.
By accepting to be condemned by a supranational jurisdiction, sovereign states have de facto recognized that human rights were taking over national laws and practices.
Algeria has just reaffirmed that its consular protection with regard to its nationals in France will be flawless. It will help them assert their rights and enforce everything that French and European legislation guarantees them as defense against abuse and arbitrariness. For Algeria, President Macron’s letter to its Prime Minister shows that it was France that has contravened its own internal legislation.
Lakhdar A.