In a climate of rekindled tensions, since the beginning of the year, between Paris and Algiers, a presidential decree published in the Official Journal has expanded the list of circumstances in which an anti-France passage of the Algerian anthem can be sung.
For the past few days, the information has been circulating in France: Algeria has restored an old verse from its national anthem. Problem, this one would be anti-France. What about in practice? What do we know about this famous verse? If in France the information is only talking about it now, the change dates back almost a month already. Indeed, on May 21, 2023, a presidential decree published in the Algerian Official Journal (JO) modified “the circumstances and conditions for the interpretation, in whole or in part, of the national anthem as well as the musical scores, complete and reduced, performed at official ceremonies”.
An event that comes as relations between Paris and Algiers have recently been strained. Since the beginning of the year 2023, the cordial agreement is indeed no longer really topical between the two countries with a common past loaded. This new period of crisis began last February, recalls Le Monde, when France participated in the exfiltration, from Tunisia and to France, of the Algerian opponent Amira Bouraoui, who was then under attack. a conviction in Algeria. Following this event, Algiers chose to stop issuing consular laissez-passer to France. These are documents that Paris needs to deport illegal immigrants deemed “undesirable”.
If the whole text does not lack vehemence or harsh words that can easily compete with the promise of impure blood of La Marseillaise, the third verse of the Algerian anthem, titled Kassaman, clearly names the enemy, namely the France. The problematic lyrics of the verse are as follows: “O France! The time for palaver is over. We have closed it like one closes a book. O France! The day has come when you must give an account. Prepare Here is our answer. The verdict, our revolution will deliver. For we have decided that Algeria will live. Witness it!” Words that leave little room for interpretation.
If we talk about reintroducing the anti-France couplet in the Algerian anthem, it has never really been removed. Written by independence activist Moufdi Zakaria in 1955, then adopted as the national anthem in 1963, the text was regularly debated after the death of former Algerian President Houari Boumediene.
However, a compromise was found in 1986. Since then, the anthem was only sung in its entirety during FLN congresses or on the occasion of the investiture of the President of the Republic. The polemical third verse was therefore almost no longer present in public life. But that was before the decree of May 21. So here it is again inscribed in the protocol of all official ceremonies.
