Grace de Boualem Sensal: Lecornu tackles Retailleau without naming him

ByMuhammad

The Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal benefited from a measure of pardon granted by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, following mediation by the German head of state. Sentenced in November 2024 to five years in prison for “endangering national security”, the author should soon find his freedom. At the National Assembly, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu greeted “those who contributed to this decision, the fruit of a method based on respect and calm”, underlining the positive outcome of a file which had aroused great emotion in France.

A sentence which sounds like a scathing reply to Bruno Retailleau, the boss of the Republicans, who had accused the government of weakness and laxity in the management of the file. By emphasizing calm and respect, Lecornu wanted to remind us that diplomacy is not conducted through posturing or media invective – an elegant but firm way of putting Retailleau in his place.

Because the “Retailleau method”, all arrogance and imprecations, bears the accents of an old neocolonial reflex, that which consists of speaking to the countries of the South in a threatening tone, as if France could still dictate its law. An outdated, ineffective and dangerous approach, which only humiliates the other party and makes any negotiation more difficult. Sébastien Lecornu, for his part, preferred the path of respectful diplomacy – that which obtains concrete results without reviving the wounds of the past.

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Muhammad

Muhammad is a visionary thinker and passionate writer who has been contributing to Understanding Islam for several years.