French President Emmanuel Macron ended his three-day visit to Algiers yesterday with a meeting with athletes and musicians in Oran, after which he returned to the country’s capital to officially dedicate the revival of bilateral relations between the two countries.
Macron visited the port of Oran, the fortress and the church of Santa Cruz on the heights of the city overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Then he moved to the recording studio during the eighties and nineties of the twentieth century “Disco Morocco”, which specialized in paradise, which spread around the world thanks to such singers like Cheb Khaled. He also attended a dance performance.
The French president arrived on Friday evening in Oran, a city known for its openness in the west of the country, and dined with writer Kamal Daoud and other Oran figures.
Before leaving the Algerian capital, he met with businessmen and youth associations who asked him questions about visa problems, the decline of the French language in Algeria, and the memory file dispute between the two countries.
The French occupation of Algeria lasted 132 years from 1830 until Algeria’s independence in 1962 after eight years of war.
After months of diplomatic turmoil stemming from this painful past, French and Algerian Presidents Abdelmajid Tebboun announced a new dynamic between the two countries on the first day of their visit on Thursday.
The visit ended with the official signing of a joint declaration, which was added at the last minute to President Macron’s agenda.
According to the French Presidency, this is an agreement on a “renewed, tangible and ambitious partnership”.
In a Friday statement, Macron said relations with Algeria “have never been a simple story, it is a story of respect and friendship and we want it to stay that way and I dare say it is a love story.”
He pointed to the partnership, which was achieved “in the midst of the current enthusiasm” after numerous meetings on Thursday with Tebbun and his ministers.
