Algeria, OQTF... What will the "interministerial council for immigration control" be used for this Wednesday?

There will be no council of ministers this Wednesday, but an interministerial council on immigration control. Prime Minister François Bayrou is bringing together members of the government at Matignon at 2 p.m. to discuss this subject. A council planned before the attack in Mulhouse , but which takes on a very special resonance after this tragedy.

The main suspect, born in Algeria and in an irregular situation in France, is subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) , but Algeria has refused to take him back into its territory ten times according to the government.

"For me it is perfectly clear, it is unacceptable," declared the Prime Minister on the sidelines of a visit to the Agricultural Show. Enough to reopen the debate in France on immigration control.

Around the Prime Minister, among others: the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, the Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of National Education Élisabeth Borne, the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot, the Minister responsible for Health Yannick Neuder and the Minister responsible for Labor Astrid Panoysian Bouvet.

According to Matignon, this meeting has several issues around the control of migratory flows: how to better control them, what plan for Mayotte or the North Sea, how to make the removal policy more effective... "There will be no Jupiterian decision, that is not the style of the house", we are told at Matignon.

Beauvau mentions 250,000 visas issued in 2024 with Algeria. Will Paris toughen its stance? "Things must come out about Algeria... and also about other countries," insists a senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Diplomatic relations are very tense between Algiers and Paris. In 2024, the quarrel began around Western Sahara , intensified since the incarceration of the writer Boualem Sansal in mid-November, before taking another turn with the influencers affair which gave rise to new pressure from France which was not followed by effects.

"The problem with OQTFs is that it is not as simple as a showdown," says the Prime Minister's entourage.

In response, government spokesperson Sophie Primas proposed on RTL to limit the number of visas issued to Algerians, also suggesting "targeting a certain number of important people in Franco-Algerian relations and no longer issuing visas."

Invited to BFMTV this Tuesday, February 25, Jean-Noël Barrot announced that he had taken "measures to restrict movement and access to the national territory for certain Algerian dignitaries" and said he was "ready to take more".

Banging your fist on the table with retaliatory measures, even if it means entering into a confrontation with Algeria to force it to take back its citizens who are illegally present in France? "Playing with visas doesn't work, or it has to be done at the European level," replies a government source, "we must especially worry them with customs tariffs or public development aid."

At the Ministry of the Interior, they want above all "the normalization of relations with Algeria" and they put forward the principle of reciprocity: "either they apply the law, or they do not apply it and one must not be more royalist than the king".