President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has once more postponed a visit to France and accused its former colonial ruler of “genocide”, in a sign of ever-worsening relations between Algiers and Paris.
Re-elected in September with more than 84 percent of the vote, Tebboune used his first televised interview with Algerian media to admonish France.
"I will not go to Canossa" he replied when asked if a long-awaited trip to Paris was on the cards.
The German expression "to walk to Canossa" has come to mean humbling oneself and asking an enemy for forgiveness.
Its roots can be found in an 11th-century power struggle between the pope and King Henry IV of Germany. Having been ex-communicated by the pope in 1076, the king was forced to go and beg the pope for forgiveness in Canossa, northern Italy.
Tebboune's visit has been postponed several times and the most recent date was scheduled for late September or early October.
But given increasingly tense relations between the two countries, Algiers views an official visit to France as a potentially humiliating experience.
Algeria president re-elected with 84.3 percent of vote: official results
Accusations of genocide
Just a few months ago, Tebboune held largely positive talks with President Macron on the margins of the G7 meeting in Italy.
According to the France's Elysée palace, the two leaders discussed how to continue implementing the bilateral Declaration of Algiers signed in August 2022, praising progress made by a joint commission of historians created to reconcile colonial difficulties.
But relations nose-dived in July after Macron sent a letter to King Mohammed VI of Morocco voicing support for the Kingdom's autonomy plan in the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
Algeria withdrew its ambassador to Paris in protest over what was seen as a shift in France’s policy away from Algeria.
France reiterates its support for Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara
Saturday’s interview provided an opportunity to voice other ongoing grievances against France, which ruled over Algeria from 1830 to 1962.
Tebboune reiterated long-standing Algerian demands that France recognise the massacres committed during French colonialism, accusing France of committing “genocide”.
The population of Algeria, Tebboune said, had been four million in 1830; 130 years later it had only doubled, at around nine million. “There was a genocide,” he stated.
While the commission of Algerian and French historians, who met in Alger in May this year for the fifth time, had intitially made progress, their joint work has since stalled.
Tebboune blamed “political declarations made a French minority that harbours hatred towards Algeria” for blocking the work.
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1968 accords
Algeria's leader also tackled controversy surrounding a Franco-Algerian agreement that makes it easier for Algerian nationals to immigrate to France.
Signed in 1968, at a time when France needed workers for its economy, it grants Algerians special status in relation to rights of movement, residence and employment – allowing them to set up businesses as traders or self-employed professionals through “residence certificates” rather than residence permits.
The documents are generally quicker to obtain than for nationals of other countries.
Last year the rightwing Republicans, backed by the far-right, anti-immigration National Rally (RN), tabled a motion calling for the termination of the agreement. In December, the French parliament rejected the proposal by 151 votes to 114.
Tebboune said the agreement had become a “banner behind which an army of right-wing extremists” were marching.
RN – which historically has close ties to former French colonials in Algeria – has increased its clout since this summer's snap parliamentary elections made it the largest political party in the National Assembly.
As a result, France's new government has swung to the right, and left-wing politicians and some observers insist it is now dependent on RN support for its survival.
Nuclear testing
Tebboune also raised the issue of the 17 nuclear tests France carried out in the Algerian Sahara between 1960 and 1966.
Documents declassified in 2013 revealed ongoing significant radioactive fallout, stretching from West Africa to southern Europe.
“France’s responsibility for the nuclear tests … still claim lives in southern Algeria," Tebboune said.
“You want us to be friends, come and clean up the nuclear test sites."
Beyond the issue of French-Algerian relations, he spoke about the Brics organisation – an alliance of major developing countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – designed to challenge the political and economic power of wealthier North America and Western Europe.
“For the moment, we do not plan to join this organisation," Tebboune noted. "Our interest lies in joining the Brics Bank, which is just as important as the World Bank.”
