President Ferhat Mehenni on X today, translated to English

After giving every chance to a balanced and mutually beneficial Franco-Algerian partnership, the President of the French Republic has just instructed the Prime Minister, Mr. François Bayrou, to opt for firmness. The Algerian generals who believed they could dictate their criminal will to France by blackmailing the political hostages that are Boualem Sansal and Christophe Gleizes, unjustly imprisoned and condemned by Algeria, will finally be at their own expense. They wanted to exchange French innocents for other innocents, Algerian chroniclers and other Kabylian political activists. Faithful to the principles of the Republic of which he is the guarantor, President Macron thus honors France by showing a sense of responsibility and a height of vision specific to statesmen.

The Kabylian government in exile welcomes this firmness and is at the disposal of the French authorities to help them as much in their firm determination to enforce the interests and security of the French people as in the search for ways and means to make the values of freedom and justice triumph on the other side of the Mediterranean. The recognition of the right of the Kabylian people to self-determination is, as such, one of the most fruitful avenues to explore. It will restore to Kabylia the state institutions that were its own before 1871.