Former French Minister S\u00e9gol\u00e8ne Royal has shed light on her recent visit to Algeria and her role in reviving stagnant Algerian-French dialogue, a conversation that had been suspended for nearly two years due to a diplomatic crisis initiated by French President Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n
During an interview with "Bourne AM" radio, Royal, who also heads the "France-Algeria Association," described the Algerian-French relationship as slowly improving. She highlighted her personal involvement in re-establishing communication channels between officials from both nations.<\/p>\n
"When I returned from Algeria, I met with Interior Minister G\u00e9rald Darmanin at his request to brief him on the visit," Royal stated. "We spoke privately for an hour, and I explained the situation. I even advised him to visit Algeria without preconditions, urging him to cease imposing conditions for the visit."<\/p>\n
Previously, the French Interior Minister had stipulated conditions, including the release of French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes, who was serving a seven-year sentence for terrorism-related offenses, and the resumption of deportations for undocumented Algerian residents in France. These remarks had led to the Algerian side disregarding the visit, which was initiated by Paris.<\/p>\n
Upon her visit to Algeria, Royal issued a cautionary statement to the French side, warning against squandering the opportunity to revitalize bilateral relations. She emphasized, "The Interior Minister must go there, to Algeria. He has been expected for some time. He should go without preconditions, because all Interior Ministers in France hide behind these demands."<\/p>\n
Royal further elaborated to "Bourne AM": "If you need Algeria to rebuild partnership relations, you must go. If you want to set preconditions, there is no need to go. Would France accept conditions being set before its own visits?"<\/p>\n
She also recalled her meeting with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune during her January visit: "When I was received by the President, he told me that he would welcome G\u00e9rald Darmanin, provided that no preconditions were discussed. I find this stance entirely natural for a sovereign nation."<\/p>\n
Royal also accused former Interior Minister G\u00e9rald Darmanin and the far-right of practicing racism when discussing Algerians and North Africans in general. "When they wish to target Algeria, their discourse is limited to a few deviants, while ignoring their positive contributions to the building of France," she explained.<\/p>\n
"Therefore," Royal continued, "during my visit to Algeria, I stressed the need to change perceptions of Algerians and North Africans generally. I witnessed significant achievements there. I visited an artificial intelligence school, factories, companies, and centers of success, to emphasize that Algerians are not only those individuals spoken of by Darmanin and others, but also include the 6,000 doctors working in French hospitals, and many others in various specializations."<\/p>\n
**Paris Must Seek Forgiveness**<\/p>\n
The head of the "France-Algeria Association" also accused French President Emmanuel Macron of failing in the memory-related project he championed since his first term. "President Macron, during his 2017 election campaign for his first term, described colonialism as a crime against humanity, spoke of decolonization, and the return of cultural property seized by France from former colonies," she noted. Royal asserted, "France must seek forgiveness from Algeria," and denied that Macron had offered even "half an apology."<\/p>\n
She questioned, "After nearly ten years, where are we now from those statements? He has returned to repeating the same discourse." Royal added, "This stance can be described as a failure to commit, a lack of appreciation, and a disregard for the African other. It is indeed neo-colonial behavior\u2014blindness and delusion. One of its consequences is France's expulsion from many Francophone African countries." This was evident, Royal explained, at the recent Franco-African summit, which was not held in a Francophone country but in an Anglophone nation, Kenya. This occurred because leaders of countries that experienced French colonialism refused to meet under the French President's tutelage, a deeply painful situation for France. Today, France must establish equal relations based on respect with its former colonies, contrary to what we observe now, Royal concluded.<\/p>\n
Related topics:<\/strong> S\u00e9gol\u00e8ne Royal, Franco-Algerian relations, Algeria France diplomacy, G\u00e9rald Darmanin, President Tebboune, colonialism legacy<\/p>\n DZWatch provides English-language coverage of Algeria-focused developments for international readers.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" S\u00e9gol\u00e8ne Royal details her role in mending Franco-Algerian ties, advocating for unconditional dialogue and criticizing past French preconditions and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/61592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dzwatch.dz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}