France threatens to freeze the assets of twenty senior Algerian officials: a turning point in the diplomatic crisis
As relations between Paris and Algiers go through one of their most serious crises since the 1990s, a retaliatory measure of rare severity is now being considered at the highest level of the French government: the freezing of assets and real estate belonging to some twenty senior Algerian officials, all of whom have significant interests in France. According to revelations in the weekly magazine L’Express, the French ministries of the economy (Bercy) and the interior (Beauvau) are actively working on the implementation of this measure, which would be triggered in the event of a further deterioration in relations between the two capitals.
The information appeared on the L’Express website on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, at 7:15 p.m. Barely two hours later, I posted it on my YouTube channel, causing an immediate political earthquake. From the corridors of the Ministry of Defense in the Tagarins district to the hushed salons of El-Mouradia, concern spread like wildfire. The announcement sent a chill down the spines of those who know they are in the crosshairs of French justice, while sparking discreet but palpable jubilation in the Algerian heartland—among the disenfranchised, the humiliated, and the exiled, who finally see a glimmer of justice.
This plan for targeted sanctions marks a turning point. For the first time, France seems ready to strike where it hurts: at undue privileges, abusively used diplomatic passports and, above all, ill-gotten gains, the fruits of systemic corruption. Bruno Retailleau, France’s interior minister, regularly mocked by the Algerian press loyal to the regime, has got it right. He has identified the weak points of this Algerian nomenklatura that preaches nationalism by day and places its children, fortunes, and interests in Paris as soon as night falls.
In short, this signal from Paris is not just a diplomatic response: it is a blow to the hypocrisy of a regime that has enriched itself at the expense of a people it keeps in poverty, while indulging in the luxuries of the French Republic. For the voyoucratie of Algiers, the party could soon turn into a nightmare.
It was in January 2025, at the height of tensions, that the idea began to take shape. Bruno Retailleau, Minister of the Interior, hinted at it in an interview with L’Express, in response to Algiers’ repeated refusal to issue consular passes for the return of its nationals subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF). “There may be individual measures targeting certain Algerian dignitaries who are contributing to the deterioration of our bilateral relations. These may be measures relating to their assets,” he said.
A targeted response against the Algerian nomenklatura
Since then, the idea has matured. A confidential list has been drawn up. It includes the names of around 20 senior Algerian officials—serving ministers, former senior regime officials, retired generals, heads of state-owned companies close to the government, and influential members of the intelligence services—all of whom own real estate or have banking interests in France. According to an anonymous government source, this group is part of a much larger group estimated at “801 members of the Algerian nomenklatura with assets in France and who regularly stay there, not even counting high-ranking military personnel,” according to L’Express. These figures have enjoyed French hospitality for years while contributing to the anti-French rhetoric in Algiers.
The asset freeze option is intended as a diplomatic weapon of mass deterrence. Like the sanctions imposed on Russian oligarchs after the invasion of Ukraine, the aim here is to apply pressure without going as far as breaking ties. The Quai d’Orsay has already begun to pull some symbolic levers. On May 16, 2025, Paris suspended the 2007 bilateral agreement allowing Algerian diplomatic passport holders to travel between the two countries without a visa. This was a strong signal to Algiers.
An escalation reminiscent of the Cold War
This rise in tensions is part of a series of conflicts that began in April 2024 with the arrest in France of an Algerian consular agent suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of YouTuber Boukhors, alias Amir DZ, between April 29 and May 1. The affair deeply shocked public opinion and prompted an immediate reaction from the French government. In retaliation, Algiers expelled twelve French diplomats on April 14, with Paris responding with a mirror measure the following day. On May 11, Algiers took another step by declaring several French officials persona non grata. This spiral of conflict worsened following France’s official recognition in July 2024 of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara—a red line for the Algerian regime. Finally, the arrest in Algeria of Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal on November 16, 2024, put the final nail in the coffin of bilateral relations.
A fragile but existing legal basis
The possible freezing of Algerian dignitaries’ assets would be based on the Russian model, but with one major difference: the sanctions against Moscow are governed by a European framework, which is not the case for Algeria. Nevertheless, France now has a legal tool that could potentially be used. Article L562-1 of the Monetary and Financial Code, amended as part of the law against foreign interference passed in July 2024, allows the ministers of the economy and the interior to decree, by joint order, the freezing of the assets of natural or legal persons suspected of having carried out “acts of interference” on behalf of a foreign power, thereby undermining the fundamental interests of the nation.
This provision could serve as a legal basis for targeting figures within the Algerian regime involved, for example, in clandestine operations on French territory (such as the Amir DZ affair) or in the deliberate sabotage of bilateral relations through a coordinated refusal to cooperate administratively and consularly.
According to Maître Renaud de l’Aigle, a lawyer specializing in this type of litigation, “this measure, although politically difficult to justify, could technically be implemented for a renewable period of six months, provided that proof of a direct link between the dignitaries targeted and the acts of interference can be provided,” as reported by the weekly magazine L’Express. The aim would therefore be to target those giving orders within the Algerian security services or the executive branch, rather than mere executors.
More of a threat than a real intention
The fact remains that, in reality, this blacklist is primarily a means of exerting pressure. The French government hopes never to have to make it public, as its disclosure would open a diplomatic breach that would be difficult to close. Publishing such a list would amount to a strategic break with Algiers, with considerable economic, human, and security consequences.
However, the message is now clear: the privileges long granted to Algerian gangsters in France—diplomatic visas, tax discretion, banking tolerance—are no longer guaranteed. And Paris intends to make it clear that impunity is no longer an option for those who engage in double hypocrisy: castigating France on Algerian television while sending their children to school in Neuilly, owning apartments in the most exclusive neighborhoods of Paris, or investing in French real estate companies.
