Macron’s Hostile Decree: France Shuts Its Doors to Algerians in a Dangerous Escalation of Bilateral Tensions

Macron’s Hostile Decree: France Shuts Its Doors to Algerians in a Dangerous Escalation of Bilateral Tensions

✍️ BY: Dr. Hana Saada

Algiers, Algeria |  In a move that strips away the last pretence of diplomatic subtlety, French President Emmanuel Macron has signed off on a sweeping decree effectively barring Algerians from obtaining long-term visas to France, marking an unprecedented act of collective punishment that strikes at the heart of bilateral relations. Far from targeting only political or diplomatic figures, the ban extends deep into the social, academic, and cultural fabric of Algerian society — an unambiguous message of exclusion.

Under Macron’s direct orders to the French Prime Minister, the granting of long-stay visas (Visa D) to Algerians has been suspended across multiple categories. University students are now denied study visas, even when armed with formal admissions from French institutions. Algerian spouses and families are blocked from reunification, even in cases that fully meet legal requirements. Religious envoys, including imams traditionally invited during the holy month of Ramadan, will no longer be admitted. Seasonal workers in agriculture, construction, and cultural sectors have been cut off, as have researchers, academics, and artists who once formed the backbone of Franco-Algerian cultural exchange.

This deliberate, across-the-board exclusion is nothing short of a political statement. Macron’s pen has replaced diplomacy with a punitive diktat, eroding decades of agreements and trust, while framing the decision as a mere “administrative measure.” The reality is far more corrosive: it is a direct assault on the human, cultural, and economic ties painstakingly built between the two nations.

Algeria’s response has been swift, firm, and unapologetic. The Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the French chargé d’affaires, delivering two sharply worded verbal notes that dismantle Paris’s narrative. The first note revokes the mutual exemption for holders of diplomatic and service passports, placing French officials under the same visa regime now imposed on Algerians — a textbook application of the principle of reciprocity. The second note terminates the longstanding privileges allowing the French embassy free use of state-owned properties in Algeria, with immediate plans to review and enforce market-rate leasing agreements.

By its own hand, France has set fire to several cornerstone agreements. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Algiers underscored that Paris’s decision blatantly violates the 1968 Freedom of Movement Agreement, the 1974 Consular Convention, the 2013 Visa Waiver Agreement, and the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. Worse still, this comes against the backdrop of a string of unresolved disputes — from migration policies and colonial-era historical memory to the Western Sahara question and the recent diplomatic pouch scandal, which Algeria has condemned as a breach of the Vienna Convention.

Macron’s gamble is as transparent as it is reckless: to leverage administrative controls as a blunt political weapon, underestimating Algeria’s capacity to respond in kind. Yet the result has been to confirm what many in Algiers have long warned — that trust in France as a partner is a diminishing commodity.

The current standoff is more than a diplomatic quarrel; it is the symptom of a profound rupture. With political dialogue at a standstill and mutual goodwill evaporating, the principle of reciprocity has become Algeria’s uncompromising baseline in dealings with Paris. Unless France reverses course, it will have to live with the reality that the gates it has shut to Algerians have also begun to close on its own influence in Algiers.

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