France offers Algeria a “friendship treaty”
French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin has proposed a long-term “friendship treaty” between Paris and Algiers to completely replace the highly contested 1968 bilateral immigration accord, government-friendly Algérie Eco reported on May 20th. Darmanin made the case for the proposal on CNews shortly after returning from an official visit to Algiers, saying the decades-old agreement simply doesn’t reflect where either country stands today, demographically or socially. In his view, France and Algeria need to leave the de Gaulle era behind and build something new, on terms that work for both sides.
Darmanin shared a personal vision for this project. “I hope, I dream, one day, of a friendship treaty,” the French minister stated, whose own grandfather is Algerian. However, he openly admitted that both countries are not there yet. The idea itself isn’t new. Bouteflika and Chirac tried exactly this in the early 2000s, and it went nowhere. The whole thing fell apart over political blowback in France surrounding a controversial 2005 law on colonial history, pushed by Nicolas Sarkozy. Nobody senior has touched the friendship treaty idea publicly since, until now.
The 1968 accord has never been an easy political inheritance. Signed just six years after Algerian independence, it carved out a distinct legal status for Algerian nationals in France, outside the usual immigration framework. The accord made it considerably easier for Algerians to travel, settle, work, and bring family members to France. This preferential treatment has made the treaty a recurring flashpoint in French politics, with right-wing parties, especially the Rassemblement National, periodically calling for its unilateral scrapping. Darmanin pushed back hard on that position, arguing that France can’t afford to burn bridges with Algeria.
The proposal also comes at a moment of cautious diplomatic thawing. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed on the French television channel BFMTV that intelligence cooperation between the two countries has resumed, with a focus on counter-terrorism and the deepening instability across the Sahel. Darmanin also took the opportunity to raise the case of French journalist Christophe Gleizes, currently imprisoned in Algeria on a seven-year sentence. He said he was confident President Tebboune would approach the matter with humanitarian consideration, and stopped just short of predicting Gleizes‘ release.
Maghrebi.org, Algérie Eco, CNews, BFMTV.
Want to chase the pulse of North Africa?
Subscribe to receive our FREE weekly PDF magazine
