France has long tried to balance two contradictory roles with Algeria: a fair-weather friend and a former coloniser that never truly let go. However, as the right wing reshapes the political mainstream in Paris, Algerians in France say they are being scapegoated in the name of 'national security.'
On 8 March, Michel Onfray, a prominent French essayist, declared on CNEWS—a far-right-leaning channel often compared to America’s Fox News—that "the danger in France now is Algerian."
Once confined to the fringes, this rhetoric is now seeping into Matignon (France's 10 Downing Street), with supposedly centrist ministers inching ever closer to the right.
On 24 February, Prime Minister François Bayrou lashed out at Algerian authorities for their "unacceptable" refusal—ten times over—to issue a consular pass for the return of a 37-year-old Algerian national ordered to leave French territory.
Algeria has also refused to accept the return of two of its nationals arrested in France for inciting violence online.
In response, Bayrou, backed by his cabinet, is now threatening to scrap the 1968 Franco-Algerian agreement, which grants Algerians special immigration privileges, as retaliation for Algiers' reluctance to take back its nationals.