Like many Algerian intellectuals, Ahmed Bensaada wanted to react to the ramblings of the former French ambassador to Algeria Xavier Driencourt. He reveals in particular that the latter had sold a sumptuous Moorish villa belonging to the French State to Réda Kouninef. Here is the full text of his contribution:
Translated from :
Mr. Driencourt : With diplomats like you, France to collapse does not need Algeria!
No, Mr. Driencourt. France does not need Algeria to collapse, as you bellowed in your recent article. With diplomats like you, she sinks alone, without any assistance.
You just have to admire the diplomatic “success” of France to realize it: a disaster in Ukraine, a debacle in the Sahel, a snub in Australia, and so on.
But tell me: was it in the prestigious schools that you attended that you were instilled in this style so eminently anti-diplomatic? Was it in these temples of diplomacy that you were taught provocation, acrimony and enmity? Is it in these places that you learned to excel in tartuferie?
Mr. Driencourt, know that you are exactly like what has been called “Quai d’Orsay adrift“.
Wasn’t it you who said that “the role of a French ambassador in Algiers is not to add fuel to the fire, even olive oil! On the contrary, it is to bring things together, to mend when necessary, to make lace. And when we make lace sometimes we prick ourselves with a pin. […] We must avoid pin pricks”?
Once in retreat, you hypocritically swapped your lacemaker’s headdress for a vulgar military helmet. This is no longer pinpricks, but an attack with nuclear-tipped missiles! Besides, weren’t you head of the military equipment sales department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?
In your violent diatribe against Algeria, you spoke of “corruption” and “business”. But by consulting your professional background, we quickly realize that you are most certainly an expert in the field.
By the way, do you know a certain Reda Kouninef? Yes, yes, the Algerian oligarch, member of the inner circle of the Boutefliklian mafia currently in prison, carried away by the Hirak. Can you explain to us how you managed to sell him the superb villa “Les Zebboudj”, property of France since 1936, for less than half of the sum displayed by the French state? A villa located in El Biar, with an area of 250 square meters of living space, built on a plot of more than one hectare!
Indeed, on the site of the French Senate, we can see that the price displayed is 10 million euros while the sale was concluded at 4.87 million euros.
The document also specifies that this transfer was approved on March 22, 2011, the date on which you were stationed in Algiers.
Some observers believe that this oligarch is a friend of yours. Well, is it true? If so, that would explain it.
Other questions: why did it take five reminders for MP François Cornut-Gentille to get an answer (after a wait of nearly 18 months)? And why is the name of the buyer, in this case Reda Kouninef, not included in the official response? Is it that embarrassing?
So, are we still talking about “corruption” and “business”?
Let’s continue in the same vein.
You must also know a certain Bruno Delaye, former French ambassador to Spain (2007-2012)? But yes, the dandy of French diplomacy, presented as “a boastful, cheeky, charming”, “brilliant, bon vivant”, “the darling of the Quai d’Orsay”, “who loves wine, women and bullfighting” and who “tu contact François Hollande and Carla Bruni”.
This “handsome” diplomat just confused the Quai d’Orsay cash desk with his own wallet! It is true that with his lifestyle, he needed cash. He therefore helped himself by stealing nearly one hundred thousand (1oo,000) euros to season his “dolce vita”. Except he got caught with his hand in the bag, and the bag was full. The file was sent to the General Inspectorate of the Quai d’Orsay, nicknamed the “beef-carrots” of diplomats. And who was in charge of this inspection? I give it to you in thousand: Xavier Driencourt. The latter, who had just left Algiers in 2012, was appointed head of this inspection. But instead of acting as it should in this type of case, he decided to “wait” for several months before launching an investigation. But why wait so long when “Article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure obliges any official who becomes aware of a possible offense to inform the Attorney General without delay”?
Questioned by the journalist Vincent Jauvert, author of the book “The hidden face of the Quai d’Orsay“, Driencourt “refused to speak in detail about the affair”. According to an important diplomat interviewed by the author, “several embassy agents were struck off for having embezzled a few thousand euros”. But what sanction for Bruno Delaye? Not enough to whip a cat. For Vincent Jauvert, “the Delaye case was handled with great leniency”. Of course with the “active indulgence” of the chef of the “beef-carrots”, Mr. Xavier Driencourt.
So how do we protect buddies belonging to the cult from embezzling diplomats? And it is you who come to talk to us about “corruption”, “business” and “the collapse of France? You do not realize that your actions are bathed in the first two and provoke the third?
That’s not all. What do you have to say about this serious espionage case when you were stationed in Algiers? Didn’t the employees of your embassy have close relations with a “drug baron” converted into mafia trafficking of all kinds thanks to the collaboration of dishonest officials who were promised “to speed up their visa procedures” ?
As for the author of the book, you replied to the journalist who contacted you that this affair means “absolutely nothing, but nothing at all”. Oh yes? A spy case set up by your services, carried out by your staff, for the benefit of your embassy and you know nothing about it? Come on, Mr. ex-ambassador, your diplomacy has nothing to do with lace anymore, but rather with sewage plumbing!
And with that, you dare to write that you have “friendship for Algeria” and “respect for the Algerian people”! By spying on him?
In Algeria, we don’t have the same conception of friendship and respect, to say the least.
But why did you choose this timing to make all this belligerent uproar against Algeria and its institutions? Certainly to support Radio M because, as I wrote recently, all occasions are good to demonize our country.
But what surprises me in your reasoning is that you insinuate that this media did not receive foreign funding when it was the Quai d’Orsay where you worked in 2014 that subsidized it by the intermediary of the CFI (Canal France International). To find out for sure, you can consult the accounts of this organization and ask Mr. Bernard Émié (Ambassador of France in Algeria 2014-2017) currently director of the DGSE (General Directorate of External Security) how this money was invested by Radio M. On our side, we know something about it, but clarifications on the question would be welcome.
Ultimately, Mr. diplomat, your feats in diplomacy rhyme only with compromise, profiteering, association with crooked oligarchs, espionage or cronyism with crooked colleagues.
It is for all these reasons that your insipid logorrhea which contains none, but then no tangible argument, shows to what extent French diplomacy is in crisis.
No, Mr. Driencourt. France does not need Algeria to collapse. Because of you and officials of your ilk, it will crumble on its own.
And what you don’t understand despite your studies in these prestigious schools is that the whole West, obsessed like you with its superiority complex, is collapsing. The tsunami is coming and you put on your bathing suit. Be careful, your underwear may not resist the wave!
