Algeria–France Tensions Resurface as Far Right Pushes to Scrap 1968 Migration Accord
✍️ BY: Dr. Hana Saada
Algiers – October 2025 – As France’s National Assembly prepares to debate, this Thursday, a proposal to revoke the historic 1968 migration accord with Algeria, bilateral relations between the two countries stand once again on the brink of strain. The move, spearheaded by far-right and conservative factions, comes at a particularly sensitive moment—coinciding with Algeria’s commemoration of the outbreak of its War of Liberation—an overlap that many interpret as a deliberate provocation laden with colonial undertones.
The proposal follows the publication of a parliamentary report by deputies Charles Rodwell and Matthieu Lefèvre, who controversially claimed that the 1968 accord costs France nearly two billion euros annually, portraying Algerian immigration as a financial and administrative burden. Yet, such claims starkly contradict empirical data, which show that France continues to reap enormous benefits from Algerian talent and expertise. According to France’s National Council of Physicians, over 19,000 Algerian doctors currently serve in French hospitals—6,000 of whom received their training in Algeria’s own universities.
Behind the veneer of fiscal concern, however, lies a calculated political maneuver. The far-right National Rally, bolstered by allied right-wing and centrist parties, seeks to weaponize the migration issue to court voters through fearmongering and populist rhetoric. Their true aim, observers note, is not legislative reform but political gain—feeding public anxiety about immigration and exploiting Algeria as an electoral pawn.
From Algeria’s perspective, the debate over the 1968 accord borders on absurdity. Officials and analysts alike point out that the agreement has long been stripped of its essence through successive French restrictions, notably the imposition of visa requirements in 1986. Far from offering Algerians any “special privileges,” as some French politicians claim, the accord has effectively become a symbolic relic—invoked by Paris when convenient as a tool of pressure or distraction.
In remarks to El Khabar, Nacer Batiche, a member of Algeria’s People’s National Assembly representing the National Liberation Front (FLN), lamented the politicization of the issue, stating: “It is unfortunate that certain French lawmakers are calling for the termination of the 1968 migration accord when it is well known that the agreement has already been emptied of its original content by decades of unilateral amendments that have undermined its balance and spirit.”
Bateche further asserted that the current push to review or cancel the accord “has no real legal or practical foundation” and instead reflects “a narrow political agenda that instrumentalizes Algerian-French relations for domestic electoral purposes.”
The timing of the French parliamentary debate—October 30, on the eve of the 71st anniversary of Algeria’s Revolution—has not gone unnoticed. Many in Algiers interpret it as a manifestation of France’s enduring colonial complex, a refusal to come to terms with Algeria’s independence, and a symbolic attempt to reassert influence under the guise of legislative reform.
“The choice of this date is not coincidental,” Batiche observed. “It reveals that certain circles in France continue to perceive Algeria through the lens of the past—clinging to outdated hierarchies instead of embracing a future based on mutual respect and shared interests.”
This sentiment echoes a pattern that has resurfaced in multiple crises over recent years, from President Emmanuel Macron’s 2021 remarks questioning the existence of a pre-colonial Algerian nation to France’s persistent refusal to apologize for colonial crimes or fully repatriate Algeria’s looted archives and the remains of its martyrs. Paris’s recurring use of issues such as visas and migration as leverage points only reinforces this perception of a cyclical, neo-colonial attitude.
“Algeria, which reclaimed its sovereignty through immense sacrifice, will not tolerate any measure that undermines the rights of its diaspora or attempts to redefine bilateral relations outside the framework of equality and full sovereignty,” Batiche affirmed, warning that any political camp betting on pressure or blackmail “gravely miscalculates.”
He concluded : “Algeria today is a confident nation—anchored in its principles, vigilant against manipulation, and unwilling to allow its memory or its citizens to be used as bargaining chips in foreign political games. As November approaches, it stands as an eternal reminder that the Algerian people neither compromise their dignity nor permit their national symbols to be exploited for transient electoral gain.”
In essence, the French far right’s obsession with the 1968 accord reveals not a legal dispute, but a deeper struggle with history—a refusal to accept Algeria’s irreversible independence and the sovereignty it so valiantly earned.
Adapted from:
https://www.elkhabar.com/nation/algeria-france-1968-migration-accord-redirect-to-agenda-265766
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