French President endorses his government ultimatum to Algeria over migration deals

French President Emmanuel Macron endorses the ultimatum issued by Prime Minister Bayrou to Algeria over its failure to take its nationals violating French laws.

Speaking to the press, Macron said the 1968 deals giving Algerians preferential treatment in entering and settling in France needed a review, adding that the safety of the French people was “above all else.”

This came after an Algerian national, who was rejected by his country fourteen times, killed one and injured seven others in the Mulhouse attack.

Macron also recalled the ordeal of French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal who has cancer and who has been “arbitrarily” jailed by Algerian authorities after an interview in which he spoke about the colonial nature of current Algeria’s borders with no antecedent in history.

Macron had openly urged Algeria to release the novelist in vain. The arrest of Sansal came in a series of self-defeating political and economic retaliatory measures after France backed Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara.

The backing was followed by visits to the Sahara by French business delegations, French culture minister and more recently by the president of the French Senate.

France has said it will respond by restricting access to the members of the Algerian nomenklatura who were allowed to enter France using a diplomatic passport only.

The first victim was the wife of Algeria’s ambassador to Mali who was denied access to France on grounds that she did not have enough cash. The rejection was reported by Algeria’s propaganda machine APS.