On Saturday, the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the “French far-right has engaged in a disinformation and defamation campaign against Algeria.”

The ministry affirmed that Algeria “has not participated in a logic of escalation as claimed by the French right.” It added that “these individuals seek to impose their grudges on Algerian-French relations.”

This tension follows the arbitrary expulsion of an Algerian citizen who had lived in France for 36 years, and it escalates amid the arrests of Algerian influencers in France on charges of inciting violence and hatred.