‘Bet Failed’, Le Monde: ‘That is Why France Lost Both Sides in Algeria’!

Macron and France have been designated as “accomplices” of the generals and the Algerian “military regime” that took place since 1962.
Le Monde said: “What happened on April 8, 2021, is a precedent in relations between the Algerian and French governments, as the Algerian minister of labor, Hashemi Jaaboub, accused France of being: the traditional and eternal enemy of his country.”
It added that “this statement is more shocking because it comes within the framework of a debate on internal politics in the Senate, two days before the visit of French Prime Minister Jean Castex to Algiers, at the head of a high-level ministerial delegation.”
Hours after Jaaboub’s “attack,” Algeria officially announced the cancellation of the French prime minister’s trip for protocol reasons, while journalist Matignon strives to justify this postponement indefinitely by the health context, according to Le Monde.
Le Monde caught up saying: “But such disdain illustrates the mistakes of Algerian policy that Paris adopted for more than a year, even with the resumption of the peaceful protest of the Hirak —which was stopped by the health crisis— again last February.”
Bet Failed
The newspaper reported that “President Emmanuel Macron ambitiously and respectfully nourishes ways to reconcile between the French and the Algerian memory.”
The newspaper continued: “He had to restrain himself during the last term of the dying former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, whom the generals finally sacrificed in April 2019 to the popular protest, but the French president did not take into account the new deal that the Hirak has imposed.”
He thus believed that Tebboune, who was elected in December 2019, with an abstention rate of 60 percent, could be his partner in “this great French-Algerian work,” according to Le Monde.
And it added: “This was in order to forget that Tebboune represents only the civilian facade of a regime that is still firmly attached to the higher military hierarchy, and that these generals have no interest in appeasing memories, which would call into question their discourse of legitimation by the only anti-colonial revolution.”
With this, they approved the story of the Algerian “millions of martyrs,” which prompted Tebboune, in May 2020, to accuse France of committing a massacre against “more than half of the Algerian people,” says the French newspaper.
“Urged to move forward, Macron swept aside these considerations and pledged in November 2020, to do all that was possible to help Tebboune, who was described as courageous,” it added.
This announcement sparked an uproar in the opposition, which condemned the “interference” of France, especially since Tebboune was then beating, with three cumulative months, the “record” in hospitalization abroad, which Bouteflika had previously kept.
The Élysée Palace continued to follow its timetable. In January 2021, historian Benjamin Stora submitted to the Head of State a report combining “academic rigor and popular demand.”
After that, the responsibility of the French state in the death of the fighter Ali Boumendjel, back in March 1957, was recognized last March, while access to certain archives on the Algerian war was facilitated.
Not only does the Algerian party do nothing in return, but Tebboune's advisor for memory reduces the Stora report to a “Franco-French report,” while the chief of staff talked louder against France, according to Le Monde.
Growing Opposition
For his part, Social Democrat Karim Tabbou, the most popular figure in the Hirak, who was imprisoned for 10 months from 2019 to 2020, publicly challenged Macron last November by saying: “As much as we do not expect any support from you, your stubbornness was understandable on the moral level for the Algerian people.”
He continued: “On the other hand, your apparent support for the Algerian regime, which is one of the regimes that obliterates freedom in the Mediterranean, reveals your bad intention and your political hypocrisy.”
He stressed that "the Hirak protests, which returned again on February 22, are now marked by anti-French slogans with unprecedented ferocity.”
Le Monde commented: “Macron and France have been designated as ‘accomplices’ of the generals and the Algerian ‘military regime’ that took place since 1962, which the protesters finally want to replace with a ‘civil and democratic authority.’”
It further signified that “this struggle for the new independence of the country, which has so far targeted the ruling class in Algiers, now raises questions about the former colonialist.”
The newspaper pointed out that “such anger against France is especially noticeable among the young demonstrators who chanted on April 13: ‘France is back, but the revolution is still here.’”
Le Monde added: “After the overthrow of its late president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, the Tunisian people possessed the elegance of not blaming France for its steadfast support for the ousted dictator.”
It explained that “at least, the Tunisian regime, until its fall, showed its proximity to Paris, at a time when France accumulated the resentment of both the authorities and the Hirak in Algeria.”
And Le Monde considered that “the lack of reaction from Paris to the provocation of Jaaboub encourages the strategy of tension among the Algerian leaders.”
Thus, on April 10, the Algerian government spokesman, Ammar Belhimer, made thinly veiled threats against the French ambassador, accused of associating too much with the opposition.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded this time, expressing its “deplore” of such “attacks that do not reflect the quality of bilateral relations nor the dynamics of their strengthening.”