Since taking the helm of the French-Algerian association in December 2025, Ségolène Royal has multiplied public gestures meant to relaunch dialogue between Paris and Algiers.
But her recent visit to the Algerian capital, marked by warm praise for President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and pointed critiques of France, has triggered a wave of controversy, with several observers accusing her of “whitewashing” the Algerian leader.
Royal, who now leads the historic association founded in 1963 to promote Franco-Algerian friendship, follows a long line of left-leaning political figures, among them Pierre Joxe, Jean-Pierre Chevènement and Arnaud Montebourg, who shaped the group’s diplomatic posture over decades.
Critics argue that Royal does not carry the same political authority as her predecessors, pointing instead to her enduring media presence and her habit of embracing high-profile causes.
During her latest visit to Algiers, framed as a mission of “reconciliation” and “repaired friendship,” Royal delivered a series of remarks that struck many in Paris as unusually deferential toward Algerian authorities, which continue to hold journalist Christoph Gleize prisoner.
Royal turned a blind eye on Algeria’s warmongering and condemned what she called“those who do not want Algeria to advance”.
Royal has never campaigned for the release of Algerian intellectual Boualem Sansal, nor denounced his arbitrary detention, despite her frequent advocacy on memory, identity and colonial history in France.
Royal’s rhetoric in Algiers also revived memories of earlier diplomatic missteps, such as her praise for “democratic progress” in Cuba or her complimentary remarks on Beijing’s handling of Tiananmen, statements that left many questioning her grasp of foreign affairs.
Her posture in Algiers follows the same pattern of a blend of moralizing tone and sweeping declarations, often out of step with the delicate language traditionally employed in French diplomacy.
Royal was actually caught red handed while “whitewashing Tebboune”, arguing that her public praise glosses over Algeria’s human rights record, media repression, and ongoing imprisonment of figures such as French journalist Christophe Gleizes.
Her comments play directly into Algiers’ narrative at a moment when diplomatic relations with France remain strained, and that they risk undermining Paris’s official positions.
