Algeria warns France after ‘lies and fabrications’ in TV documentary

The African country has labeled the actions of French media as a “new stage” in the escalation of tensions

The Algerian government has accused France of authorizing aggression against the North African country, following the broadcast of a documentary on French public television which Algiers described as “lies and fabrications.”

Last Thursday, state-owned France 2 released a report, ‘Rumors and Dirty Tricks: The Secret War Between France and Algeria’, showing alleged covert campaigns of intimidation, influence, and disinformation by the Algerian authorities against France.

In a statement on Saturday, Algeria’s Foreign Ministry said it summoned the charge d’affaires of the French Embassy in Algiers to protest what is “abusively presented as a documentary, but which in reality is nothing more than a tissue of counter-truths that are deeply offensive and needlessly provocative.”

The ministry said it warned the French diplomat of “the extreme gravity” of an escalation of “anti-Algerian” conduct and emphasized that Algeria “reserves the right to take whatever follow-up actions the seriousness of such acts may require.”

READ MORE: Algerian parliament declares French colonial rule a crime

“The contribution of the Embassy of France in Algiers and that of the Ambassador personally in promoting this outrageous campaign… reinforces the feeling that it benefited from a green light from French official services,” it stated.

Relations between Algeria and France have long been strained over unresolved historical grievances stemming from France’s colonial rule from 1830 until Algerian independence in 1962. The two countries have also in recent years often clashed over migration policy, and France’s backing for Morocco’s stance on the disputed Western Sahara – a territory Algeria has long supported in its push for independence.

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The latest dispute comes weeks after Algerian lawmakers passed a law criminalizing French colonial crimes. The new legislation demands that Paris offer an apology and reparations for the atrocities, including nuclear tests, extrajudicial killings, physical and psychological torture, and the systematic plundering of resources during its 132 years of rule over the country.

According to the Algerian Foreign Ministry, the action of France 2 TV “represents a new stage in the escalation of anti-Algerian threats that official French circles maintain for the purpose of keeping Algerian-French relations in a state of permanent crisis.”