German-French friendship: pull yourself together

DThe writer Boualem Sansal, winner of the German Book Trade Peace Prize, spent a year in an Algerian prison. The regime there arrested the old man on a visit home on November 16, 2024 and, in a windy trial, sentenced him to five years in prison for “endangering the territorial integrity” of his country. French politicians supported Sansal, but were hopelessly entangled with those in power in Algiers. The then French Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, acted as a tough man, threatening and waving his arms in the direction of Algeria. Today Retailleau is a candidate to succeed Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace, one of many with manageable chances. The applicants for the office are now so numerous that there would easily be enough for a separate union.