"It is likely that President Macron unconsciously wanted to support the Hirak" (a pro-democracy movement born in February 2019), even if he could not "say so explicitly" without being accused of interference, says Kader Abderrahim, a lecturer at Sciences-Po and author of "Geopolitics of Algeria" (published by Bibliomonde). Algeria over the weekend recalled its ambassador from Paris and banned French military planes from its airspace, which France regularly uses to reach its forces battling jihadists in the Sahel region. That came after a bitter row over visas, followed by media reports that Macron had told descendents of Algeria's war of independence that the North African country was ruled by a "political-military system" that had "totally re-written" its history. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES