Three messages Algeria sends through arrest of Boualem Sansal

The arrest of novelist Boualem Sansal took place three months ago against the backdrop of worsening ties between Algeria and France, following Paris recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara. Through this arrest, the Algerian regime sent three messages to Sansal, France and Algerians, wrote former French ambassador Xavier Driencourt.

In his first op-ed on Moroccan media Le360, Driencourt recalls the “irrational” character of Algeria’s ageing and ailing regime which has made France a scapegoat on which it pins all the country’s woes.

The arrest of Sansal was Algeria’s response to an increasing criticism of the failed policies of the Algerian regime, which has been punching above its political, diplomatic, and economic weight, taking aim at France.

Algeria was dealt a blow when Paris backed Morocco’s sovereignty, followed by the distinction given to novelist Kamal Daoud, for his novel Hourris, which recounts the horrors of the Algerian civil war, a taboo topic banned from all literary and cinematographic works in Algeria.

The Algerian regime perceived the distinction as an affront to its falsified national narrative and took Sansal as hostage, wrote the former French ambassador.

In keeping Sansal behind bars on cham charges, the Algerian regime silences a critical novelist who has never shied away from exposing the brutal nature of the Algerian regime, which subsists on rehashing anti-France slogans.

The second hostage is Emmanuel Macron, whose once Algeria-tropism collapsed on the rock of the oppressive and irrational reality of the regime in Algiers, wrote Driencourt. Macron thought he could succeed where his predecessors, Charles de Gaulle, Francois Metterand, and Jaques Chirac have all failed as far as ties with Algeria are concerned.

The third hostage are Algerian intellectuals and dual nationals. Algeria, through the oppression of Sansal, sends a message that it has zero tolerance for criticism.