What next for Algeria-France ties?

Algeria’s relationship with France has never escaped the burdensome gravity of their shared colonial past. More than 60 years after Algeria’s bloody war of independence, the wounds remain raw and deeply politicized. France’s 132-year occupation (1830 to 1962) was marked by land expropriation, brutal repression and a war that Algerians say killed more than a million of their people.
To this day, the Algerian state enshrines the memory of resistance and martyrs as a foundational narrative. In turn, many in France still struggle to fully acknowledge the crimes of colonialism, caught between guilt and a lingering imperial amnesia. This fundamental disconnect poisons bilateral relations and makes any “normal” friendship elusive. Each country accuses the other of weaponizing history.
However, while historical wounds might set the stage, recent years have provided plenty of fresh reasons for acrimony. They have, in particular, seen a series of flashpoints that repeatedly derailed attempts at some of detente, beginning with the Hirak movement, where France found itself on the wrong side of public opinion.
Then came the migration visa feud of 2021. Facing pressure from anti-immigrant factions at home, French President Emmanuel Macron’s government announced drastic cuts in the number of visas for Algerian (and other Maghreb) nationals, ostensibly to punish Algiers for refusing to readmit Algerians deported from France. This unilateral squeeze — slashing visas by half — struck a nerve. Travel to France, whether for study, work or family visits, is a lifeline for many Algerians given the deep human ties between the countries. Algiers blasted the move as an “unjustified” collective punishment and again recalled its ambassador in protest.
This visa “war” showed how the migration issue had become a volatile proxy battle in the relationship, entangling domestic politics with diplomacy. Yet amid these quarrels, and rather surprisingly, both sides have also tried to patch things up when interests dictate. In late 2022, for instance, Macron and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune professed a desire to turn the page. Macron visited Algiers with great fanfare, calling Algeria a “friend” and announcing a “new pact” of partnership. The optics were positive: smiling leaders, floral wreaths, joint declarations about youth exchanges and even a commission of historians to jointly examine the colonial era.
The thaw, however, was painfully short-lived.
Yet again, Algeria and France became trapped in the fallout from a perpetual trust deficit that runs so deep that even goodwill gestures can be undone overnight by a single provocation.
Underlying much of this tension is the politically charged issue of migration. France is home to a vast Algerian diaspora — by some counts, nearly a million French citizens are dual nationals of Algeria and several million more residents trace their family origins to Algeria. These human links are a living legacy of colonialism and a permanent source of both connection and friction. On the one hand, the Algerian diaspora in France serves as a bridge between the societies; on the other, it is a lightning rod in French domestic politics, often reflected in debates over immigration, integration and national identity.
As French politics has drifted right in recent years, anti-immigrant sentiment has surged and French politicians have frequently singled out North African migrants for criticism. Algeria, not surprisingly, chafes at such treatment. It refuses to be cast as a source of illegal migration and routinely demands that France treat Algerian travelers with dignity. Moreover, Algiers has its own political calculations: cooperating too eagerly with French deportation requests risks playing into Macron’s narrative and angers the Algerian public, who view France’s deportations as selectively targeting their community.

True normalization would require a level of trust and mutual understanding that simply does not exist.

Hafed Al-Ghwell

Against a backdrop of recurring crises, one must ask: will Algeria-France relations ever normalize?
At present, the prospects are dim. True normalization would require a level of trust and mutual understanding that simply does not exist. It would mean France finally coming to terms with its colonial legacy in a way that satisfies Algerian demands — something no French leader, not even Macron in his boldest moments, has been willing or able to do.
It would also mean Algeria’s leadership overcoming its reflexive suspicion of French motives and ceasing to use France as a convenient foil for domestic legitimacy. Neither scenario appears likely in the near term. Instead, both governments essentially remain prisoners of history and politics. France cannot apologize for the past without igniting a firestorm at home.
On the other hand, Algeria’s government, dominated by the old military-political elite, cannot relinquish its revolutionary narrative or suddenly forgive France. Its raison d’etre is arguably built on having vanquished colonialism. Any Algerian leader seen as being too cozy with Paris risks being denounced as a traitor by rivals at home.
Thus, the status quo, as frustrating as it is, creates a strange “stability” — each side can blame the other for the lack of progress and each derives certain benefits from continued tension. French politicians score cheap points by posturing against Algerian “ingratitude” or “mass immigration,” while Algerian officials burnish their nationalist credentials by defying “neocolonial” France. It is a bitter embrace indeed — neither ally nor outright enemy, locked together by shared history but separated by mistrust.
To be certain, a complete rupture is not on the horizon either.
The two countries are too entwined to fully divorce. Economic ties, for one, are resilient: bilateral trade is nearing €12 billion ($13.6 billion) a year and growing, proof that business can boom even when politics bust. Energy interdependence could still exert a calming influence; if Europe’s need for Algerian gas increases, France might find common cause with Algiers in spite of everything. Moreover, there remains a genuine fondness between the French and Algerian peoples on many levels, such as familial bonds, cultural affinities and a shared language.
These connections act as a subtle brake on the worst impulses of politicians on either side of the Mediterranean. After all, completely severing relations would be mutually destructive, and both capitals know it. Thus, we are likely to see continued oscillation between quarrel and quiet cooperation, rather than a clean break or a clean slate. In diplomatic backchannels, some level of engagement will endure — intelligence agencies sharing notes on terror threats, for example, or companies quietly negotiating contracts.
But “normalization” in the full sense — where France and Algeria trust each other, work in tandem and put aside historical grudges — remains a mirage.
Will they ever?
The current trajectory suggests not soon. “Mending the rift” will require far more than warm words and state visits; it would demand brave, perhaps radical, changes in attitude on both sides. In today’s climate — of France’s tilt toward right-wing “knee-jerkism” and Algeria jealously guarding its revolutionary pride — such changes are hard to imagine. Instead, one foresees continued estrangement punctuated by periodic thaws that ultimately disappoint.
The rift, in short, is here to stay.

• Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow and executive director of the North Africa Initiative at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. X: @HafedAlGhwell