Bruno Retailleau, Republicans leader and 2027 presidential candidate, accused Emmanuel Macron of being a 'willing hostage to Algeria's memorial blackmail' in a JDD interview. He denounces the president's 'ideological dependence' on OQTF expulsions and visa policy. Retailleau sharply criticized Macron's recent remarks on 'madmen' wanting to anger Algeria.
In an interview published on Sunday, May 2, 2026, in Le Journal du Dimanche, Bruno Retailleau, former Interior Minister and Republicans leader, sharply criticized Emmanuel Macron following his remarks during a visit to a hospital in Ariège. The president had referred to 'madmen' wanting to 'get angry with Algeria.' 'This word "madman" has no place in a president's mouth: it betrays a loss of cool-headedness, also contempt,' Retailleau stated.
He accuses Macron of yielding to Algerian pressures, calling it an 'abdication of French pride.' Retailleau denounces Algeria's refusal to take back its nationals under OQTF despite the 1994 agreement. 'Do we protect them by accepting that dangerous individuals under OQTF are not taken back? No, and the Mulhouse attack showed it,' he declares. According to him, Algerians make up over 40% of high-risk profiles in retention centers.
Retailleau dismisses Macron's argument about Algerian doctors in France as a 'false pretext' and criticizes the president's memorial policy, tied to his 2017 speech on colonization. He advocates visa reciprocity: 'proportion the issuance of visas to the level of cooperation from countries of origin on readmissions.' In 2025, France issued over 200,000 visas to Algerians despite scant consular laissez-passer.
He deems the results of dialogue with Algiers 'very weak: fewer than a hundred OQTF executed since the start of the year' and calls to denounce the 1968 Franco-Algerian agreement, 'profoundly unbalanced.' 'France must be respected, and the French protected,' he concludes.
