after the nervous breakdown, the dialogue?

France decided to open the judicial archives from the Algerian war period 15 years in advance. It is a new gesture from Paris in favor of reconciliation with Algiers, but the irritants are still numerous. Basically, Algeria still wants, for lack of excuses, a form of repentance from France on its colonial past. A gesture that no President of the Fifth Republic has resolved to accomplish. In the files of the past, the Algerian power insists on the nuclear tests of France in the Sahara, open-air and underground tests.

Algiers wants Paris to propose a plan for the remediation of contaminated soils, but also to indemnify populations who have been exposed to atomic radiation. Algerians are all the more mobilized on this issue as Emmanuel Macron has promised to speed up the compensation procedure vis-à-vis the populations of Polynesia who, too, have suffered the consequences of the French atomic tests in the Pacific. A Franco-Algerian technical committee exists on the subject to settle the dispute. On the French side, it is said that proposals have been made, as well as offers of compensation, but that the Algerian side would ask for unrealistic sums, hence the deadlock on this issue of nuclear tests.

The objective of the visit of Jean-Yves Le Drian, the boss of the Quai d’Orsay, in Algeria this week, aimed to resume the dialogue after the recent controversies between the two countries, when the words of Emmanuel Macron reported by The world denounced a “politico-security system” Algerian maintaining a “memorial rent”. The overflight of the airspace of the French planes of Operation Barkhane in Mali had been suspended by Algiers. At a minimum, the Algerian authorities should allow the resumption of emergency medical flights to evacuate wounded soldiers on the ground. French planes must now make a big detour via Morocco. But, it will take other discussions to restore all military flights over Algeria.

There is also the issue of visas issued to Algerians. France had decided to reduce them last September, in protest against the unwillingness of Algiers to recover its nationals in an irregular situation in France. Again, it will take long negotiations. Finally, the resumption of operational dialogue in the area of ​​anti-terrorist cooperation is also on the agenda. In short, as a diplomat from the Quai d’Orsay sums it up: “We cannot afford to allow a deteriorated situation between France and Algeria to continue.” But between the two countries, which look like an old couple, one has the impression that nothing is ever settled, and that a nervous breakdown can occur at any time.