Emmanuel Macron has a problem and its name is not Elon Musk. It is interference of an altogether more dangerous nature, a brazen attempt to destabilise France.
On Thursday, while Thierry Breton – until recently France’s commissioner in Brussels – called on the EU ‘to investigate Musk’s practices’, a reference to the American’s regular commentary on European politics, the French government expelled an Algerian ‘influencer’ known as Doualemn.
He had his residence permit cancelled and was deported after posting messages to his 138,000 followers on social media that were anti-Semitic and an incitement to violence.
By Thursday evening, Doualemn was back in France after the Algerians put him on the first flight to Paris. He is now being held in a detention centre, one of thousands of Algerians in custody.
On Friday morning Bruno Retailleau, France’s minister of the Interior, expressed his ‘amazement’ at Algeria’s action, adding: ‘We have reached an extremely worrying threshold with Algeria. Algeria is seeking to humiliate France.
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