ALGIERS – Despite the fantasies harbored by France’s vindictive far-right, which has never come to terms with Algerian independence, Boualem Sansal was not among those granted clemency in the presidential pardon issued by the President Abdelmadjid Tebboune for July 5th.
In truth, Boualem Sansal remains trapped by his own delusions, much older than his trial, and serves as the perfect pretext for launching yet another predictable campaign of hatred and disinformation against Algeria.
This assault is spearheaded by France’s media establishment, beholden to the Bolloré empire and ever eager to savage Algeria, its people, and its sovereignty.
For months now, mercenary editorialists, rabid columnists, and pseudo-intellectuals turned inflammatory provocateurs have parroted the same talking points: Sansal supposedly embodies an oppressive regime that must be “brought to heel” by a barely disguised diplomatic blackmail. Never mind that France, that great arbiter of moral lessons, has over 2,297 of its own citizens imprisoned worldwide without ever declaring a national crisis.
But Algeria is expected to bow down. Simply because it dares to prosecute, on its own territory and under its own laws, a natural-born Algerian citizen who was educated at its universities, worked for its institutions, and retired as a high-ranking government official.
Boualem Sansal is not a hostage: he was prosecuted for an offense against internal order, related to national unity, a red line for any self-respecting state.
So where does France stand in all this? Nowhere, except striking a neocolonial pose embraced by segments of a political class that has lost its way and continues to make bilateral relations conditional on how much it can interfere.
Behind the Sansal case lies a carefully orchestrated strategy now coming to light: stoking anti-Algerian sentiment to distract from the real crises facing mainland France. They conjure up the specter of an « ungovernable Algeria, » they recycle the nostalgia of « French Algeria, » they resurrect the OAS ( the Secret Army Organization) through editorials, opinion pieces and sensationalist TV shows.
Pascal Bruckner, the latest clown, openly called on Figaro TV to « kidnap Algerian diplomats » and dared to qualify an entire people as « brainless. » A hate speech that recalls the pestilential stench of the 70s, when in Marseille, anti-Algerian racism culminated in attacks and bombings, under the complacent eye of the OAS heirs.
In truth, the far-right attack dogs and their Bolloré media network aren’t really trying to defend Sansal, he’s just a pretext. they especially want to rekindle a memory war, flatter the nostalgic electorate and provide a convenient distraction from very real crises: social fracture, police violence, integration breakdown. The Algerian enemy, yesterday fellaga, today “dictatorship,” remains their favorite red herring.
Let them bark then. Algeria stands firm, faithful to its principles and jealous of its sovereignty. Boualem Sansal is an internal Algerian matter. Parisian edicts will change nothing about it. On their platforms, they can spew their venom on their talk shows all they like: even the most toxic Bolloré propaganda will never dim the purity of Algiers.
Real history has already rendered its verdict: the era of masters and servants is finished, and no one will make us bow down to a past that only they stubbornly refuse to let go of, clinging to it to fuel their resentment.
