Amid worsening tension between Paris and Algiers,former French ambassador to Algeria Xavier Driencourt offers a sharp critique of France’s long-standing diplomatic posture toward Algeria in his new book France–Algérie: le double aveuglement (“France–Algeria: The Double Blindness”).
The book refers on the one hand to France’s blindness to the true nature of the Algerian regime,its authoritarianism,internal fragility,and manipulation of historical grievances.
On the other hand,it explains facets of France’s internal blindness,particularly its failure to recognize how Algerian networks and diaspora politics influence French domestic affairs,especially around immigration and identity.
Driencourt criticizes France’s Algeria policy as being reduced to two narrow issues: colonial memory and visa quotas,both of which Algeria uses to exert pressure on Paris.
The book is thus a continuation of his earlier work L’Énigme algérienne (“The Algerian Enigma”),published in 2023,which served as a reflection on his nearly eight years as French ambassador in Algiers (2008–2012 and 2017–2020). That book explored the internal contradictions of the Algerian regime,the opacity of its power structures,and the challenges of engaging diplomatically with a state he described as “locked in its own history.”
The book uses France’s 2024 recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara as a catalyst that exposed the fragility of Franco-Algerian ties. The arrest of Algerian writer Boualem Sansal shortly after this decision is presented as symbolic of Algeria’s repressive reflexes and France’s diplomatic entrapment.
Algeria has taken retaliatory measures after Paris recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara. The Algerian regime threw French Algerian writer in jail for questioning the legitimacy of colonial borders,engaged in a hate speech campaign against France and sacked French diplomats. France responded by visa restrictions and re-imposing visa requirements on holders of Algerian diplomatic passports.
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