The tension between Algiers and Paris crosses a new level. In response to the suspension by France of the 2013 agreement allowing holders of Algerian diplomatic or official passports to enter without visa, Algeria has announced the immediate end of this exemption for French diplomats.
This measure is accompanied by a removal of the logistical privileges granted until then to French representatives in Algerian ports and airports. Algiers also denounces the restrictions imposed by Paris on diplomats in the secure areas of French airports, which she considers as contrary to the Vienna Convention.
The response does not stop there: Algeria has withdrawn the free provision of real estate from the French diplomatic mission and warned that it would continue to apply the principle of reciprocity “to each hostile”.
This crisis, one of the most serious for decades, has been fed by an accumulation of disputes: tensions on the migratory question, refusal of Algiers to take up certain expelled nationals, political differences on Western Sahara and expulsions of diplomats.
Faced with this climate of distrust, the two capitals seem to be engaged in a spiral of reprisals where each gesture of one leads to an immediate response from the other. A dynamic that further moves away the prospect of rapid appeasement.
