The Algerian regime’s diplomatic masquerade has just slammed into a wall of French resolve. On Tuesday, April 15, 2025, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced on X a stinging response to Algeria’s provocation: 12 Algerian consular agents will be expelled from France, and the French ambassador in Algiers is being recalled for consultations. A rare move, but one that carries heavy meaning — a sharp slap in the face to Algeria’s ruling junta.
The Algerian authorities, prisoners of their own paranoid delusions and a cardboard-cutout nationalism, thought it wise to declare twelve French officials persona non grata — an act of diplomatic childishness unseen in recent memory. Officially, the move followed the arrest in France of an Algerian consular agent implicated in a case of kidnapping and unlawful confinement on French soil. In truth, this decision was yet another grotesque episode in Algeria’s ongoing saga of diplomatic self-destruction.
But this time, France did not turn the other cheek. Jean-Noël Barrot responded with crystalline clarity: “If Algeria chooses escalation, we will respond with the utmost firmness.” So be it.
A Cornered Regime Clinging to Its Anti-French Obsessions
This absurd escalation exposes a brutal reality: the Algerian regime, isolated, panicked, and economically crumbling, is desperately trying to distract its people by waving the tired banner of foreign interference. It’s an age-old tactic, typical of authoritarian regimes on the brink.
Unable to guarantee security, prosperity, or even basic dignity to its own citizens, the Algerian leadership has sunk into a spiral of gratuitous confrontation, riding the wave of poorly digested post-colonial resentment while refusing any introspection over its own monumental failures.
France Ends the Era of Diplomatic Patience
The time for diplomatic leniency is over. France, fed up with the schizophrenic antics of the Algerian regime, is drawing a line in the sand: it will no longer play the role of the benevolent partner to a government that responds only with defiance, provocation, and duplicity.
Paris’s decision, backed by a large segment of the French political establishment, is a clear signal: the Algerian military junta can no longer insult, manipulate, and sabotage bilateral relations without facing diplomatic consequences.
Once again, it is the Algerian people who will pay the highest price for their rulers’ recklessness—held hostage by a regime that favors absurd posturing over intelligent cooperation. At a time when the region desperately needs calm, dialogue, and development, the Algerian regime persists in a self-destructive race toward the abyss.
But the wind is shifting. And this time, Algeria will no longer be able to hide behind its worn-out victim narrative. The reckoning has begun.
Abderrazzak Boussaid / Le7tv