Death of Abdelaziz Bouteflika: Emmanuel Macron hails a “major figure” of Algeria and “a demanding partner for France”

The French head of state sent, in a statement published this Sunday 19 September by the Elysee, “his condolences to the Algerian people” and declared to remain “committed to developing relations close esteem and friendship between the French people and the Algerian people “, after the death of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

His reaction is published as the burial ceremony of the former president, who had been forced to resign on April 2 2019, was held in Algiers in the presence of his successor Abdelmadjid Tebboune and d ‘other personalities. “With Abdelaziz Bouteflika passes away a major figure in the contemporary history of Algeria. His life is inseparable from it”, underlines Emmanuel Macron.

“Engaged in the struggle for the independence of his country, he then embodied the ambitious foreign policy of Algeria. Having become head of state, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was a demanding partner for France with which he wanted to enter into a relationship new “, he adds.

Emmanuel Macron had met Abdelaziz Bouteflika, then president, during the official visit he made to Algeria in December 2017.