The Algerian national anthem must now be sung in its entirety during “official commemorations in the presence of the President of the Republic”. The couplet expressly calling on France to “render accounts” will therefore be included. So decided, in Algiers, a presidential decree dated May 21.
Contrary to what the pro-regime Algerian media, de facto engaged in a campaign for a second term for President Abelmadjid Tebboune, suggests, the text does not “restore” the anthem in its entirety. In reality, the couplet on France has never been removed: two versions of the anthem, complete or reduced (that is to say amputated from said couplet), are in use depending on the circumstances.
The recent decree innovates insofar as it widens the list of events that must be subject to the full version. According to the previous text, dated 1986, it was the reduced anthem that was sung during official commemorations in the presence of the President of the Republic.
Compromise
Kassaman (“we swear”) was composed in 1955 by poet and nationalist activist Moufdi Zakaria from his cell in Barberousse prison, Algiers. In the third verse, it says: “O France! the time for palaver is over. We closed it as one closes a book. O France! the day has come when you must give an account. Get ready, here is our answer. »
In 1986, under President Chadli Bendjedid, the idea of ??deleting this passage had aroused very strong controversy. Those who, in the entourage of the Head of State, felt that the national anthem should not refer to the former colonizer had encountered opposition from the “revolutionary family”, in particular the Organization National Mujahideen. A compromise was finally found, which, without touching the entire anthem, made it possible to use only the first verse in ceremonies involving foreign heads of state.
The presidential decree of March 1986 limited in its article 3 the performance of the national anthem in its entirety to the opening and closing of the congress of the National Liberation Front (FLN, then the only party in Algeria) and to the ceremony of taking the oath of the President of the Republic. The French heads of state were thus preserved from this passage where their country was cited quite vehemently. It will always be the case.
Also some commentators in Algeria relativize the scope of the new decree. They note, for example, that the “military ceremonials organized within the Ministry of National Defense” will now have the reduced version of Kassaman imposed on them. Which is not nothing in a country where the army is presented as the quintessence of nationalism.
mockery
As for the restoration of the full version for official commemorations in the presence of the Head of State, if he devotes a novelty on paper, the practice was already widespread. The national anthem is indeed often performed in its entirety. Mr. Tebboune’s measure makes it possible, without really calling into question the 1986 compromise, to play on the nationalist theme, favored more than ever by the president’s communication.
The prospect of a revival of Algerian-French relations having become blurred with the postponement of Mr. Tebboune’s visit to France, Algerian media have renewed their accusations against France. Sometimes in a grotesque way, like the French-language newspaper L’Expression and the Arabic-language title El Khabar, which published articles in late May quoting “very reliable security sources” and claiming that a meeting targeting Algeria gathered in Tel Aviv of “influential members of the Mossad, five officials of the French intelligence services as well as twelve officials of the Moroccan services”. What arouse vast mockery on social networks.
In addition, the “campaign” of the former French ambassador to Algeria, Xavier Driencourt, against the Algerian-French treaty of 1968 which defines the conditions of movement, residence and work of Algerians in France is apprehended as a sign that The “deep state” in France does not want normalization with Algeria.
