The French National Assembly voted this Thursday morning, by a margin of only one vote (185 votes in favor against 184), in favor of a draft resolution to cancel the 1968 agreement signed between France and Algeria, an agreement that grants Algerian citizens a special status that regulates their conditions of movement, residence, and work in France.
This decisive vote came based on a proposal submitted by the far-right National Rally party, with the support of deputies from the Republicans and Horizons parties, while it was opposed by the leftist parties, the presidential majority, and the French government, which considered the decision more symbolic than legally binding. The 1968 agreement is historically linked to the post-Evian Accords phase, which ended the Algerian War in 1962, as it established a special legal framework for Algerians to travel to France, reside there, and work under facilitated conditions compared to other nationalities. In a first reaction, Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Rally party, expressed her satisfaction with the voting result, describing it as "a historic day for her party," confirming that this is the first time her party has succeeded in passing a text inside the French Parliament despite the opposition of the government and currents close to President Emmanuel Macron. Observers believe that this vote, despite its symbolic nature, reflects the rising influence of the far-right in the French political scene, amid the intensifying debate about the immigration file and French-Algerian relations, and represents a strong political signal towards reconsidering the bilateral agreements that date back to the post-colonial phase.
