The Élysée prepares the crucial visit of Abdelmadjid Tebboune to France

The Algerian president announced, following a telephone interview with Emmanuel Macron, that he wanted to go to France next May for an official visit.

This Sunday, January 15, Emmanuel Macron and Abdelmadjid Tebboune spoke on the phone, almost five months after the visit of the French president to Algeria. At the time, Macron and Tebboune had signed a joint declaration "for a renewed partnership between France and Algeria". And one of the first consequences of the friendship rediscovered between Paris and Algiers is the official visit of Abdelmadjid Tebboune to Paris. This should take place in May. And everything is already in place for it to take place in the best possible conditions.

With a first major unknown, which could be very important: the trip planned by Emmanuel Macron to Morocco. Initially planned at the end of last year, then postponed to january, the French president's visit to the Cherifian kingdom should actually be organized later. Paris and Rabat are currently discussing the terms of the trip, and Morocco would see Macron position himself, when he comes, on Western Sahara.

Before Tebboune's trip, a visit by Macron to Morocco?

However, it is hard to imagine the French president acceding to the Moroccan request just a few weeks before receiving Tebboune for a crucial visit. In the meantime, several emissaries have been tasked with organizing things, on both sides: according to Africa Intelligence, the head of the Algerian army, Saïd Chengriha, is due to go to Paris before the end of January. France will send the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Anne-Marie Descôtes, to Algiers.

The two heads of state, according to the Algerian presidency, during their telephone conversation, raised "questions relating to bilateral relations and the state visit of the President of the Republic to France, agreeing to schedule it for the month of next May”. A trip that comes as Emmanuel Macron announced that he would not apologize to Algeria for colonization, but that he hoped to continue the work of memory and reconciliation between the two countries.

While, according to Tebboune, a new "relationship of trust" unites Paris and Algiers, this trip will certainly be an opportunity to sign bilateral agreements. Because, in addition to the question of memory, the problem of visas which poisoned Franco-Algerian relations has been resolved. It now remains to be seen how the French president will manage to spare Rabat and Algiers at the start of 2023.