French weekly “Marianne” published a piece on Wednesday entitled “United States, Algeria, Germany, Niger, Qatar, Australia, Pakistan… Why do they hate France?” (États-Unis, Algérie, Allemagne, Niger, Qatar, Australie, Pakistan… Pourquoi ils détestent la France?), decoding the reasons for “anti-French sentiment” that seems to be spreading around the world.
Written by journalist Alain Léauthier, the article asserts that French military intervention against the coup leaders in Niger “would not benefit anyone” and that the “hard line” advocated by the Quai d’Orsay and the Elysée is only “weakly supported by Ivory Coast and Senegal, but not at all by … European countries — Germany or Italy — nor by Washington.”
Léauthier argues that France’s foreign policy in the Maghreb region has managed to estrange Morocco while failing to persuade Algerian authorities, which often hastily incite conflicts related to historical grievances.
A similar article, entitled “A World Tour of Francophobia” (Tour du Monde de la Francophobie) notes that with respect to Franco-Algerian relations Emmanuel Macron’s presidency has alternated between “icy coldness and feeble warming.”
It also suggests that “Algerian military regimes have never truly committed to a return to full diplomatic relations. They continue to exploit this bloody past, sometimes making it their mainstay, while the country still struggles to open up, develop, and unite a disillusioned nation tempted by exodus.”
Finally, the article remarks that Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune has reinstated an old, abandoned verse of the Algerian national anthem calling to settle scores with France.