European Parliament Votes And Demande Immediate Release Of Boualem Sansal, Abdelwakil Blamm, Tadjadit Mohamed

The European Parliament adopted today Thursday, January 23, 2025 the resolution RC-B10-0087/2025 demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, journalist Abdelwakil Blamm, and poet Tadjadit Mohamed, with an overwhelming majority of 533 votes in favor, 24 against, and 48 abstentions. It was proposed by a broad coalition spanning from center-right to progressive left: the conservative European People’s Party (PPE), the center-left Socialists & Democrats (S&D), the conservative-nationalist European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), the liberal-centrist Renew Europe, and the progressive Greens/European Free Alliance (Verts/ALE).

EU resolution RC-B10-0087/2025 was adopted with an overwhelming majority of 533 votes in favor, 24 against and 48 abstentions. The votes brought together the whole political spectrum of the EU, including the progressive Greens/European Free Alliance, center-left Socialist Democrats, liberal-centrists, center-right, conservatives, conservative-nationalists and reformists.

This joint resolution, which follows a preliminary parliamentary debate held on Wednesday November 27, 2024 (procedure 2024/2963(RSP)), where EU lawmakers across political groups expressed concern over Sansal’s detention, though they differed on approaches to pressure Algeria, ranging from diplomatic dialogue to economic sanctions.

The adopted resolution RC-B10-0087/2025, which emerged as the most consensual among seven competing proposals (0087, 0088, 0089, 0090, 0091, 0092, 0093). The voted resolution took a broad and measured approach focusing on human rights and EU-Algeria relations while promoting dialogue and cooperation. It notably differs from more confrontational proposals, such as the Platform for Europe (PfE) Group’s resolution 0088/2025 that called for punitive measures including restricting visa issuance to Algerian citizens, particularly to Algerian officials, suspending EU funding under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI), and making the forthcoming 2025 revision of the EU-Algeria Partnership conditional on the release of Boualem Sansal, Abdelwakil Blamm, et Tadjadit Mohamed.

Alternative proposals included a broad spectrum going from the most harsh and confrontational to the most lenient and conciliatory -if not enabling and permissive-: resolution 0088/2025 accused Algeria of using Sansal as a hostage and called for punitive measures such as restricting visa issuance to Algerian citizens, particularly to Algerian officials, suspending EU funding under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI), and making the forthcoming 2025 revision of the EU-Algeria Partnership conditional on the release of Boualem Sansal, Abdelwakil Blamm, et Tadjadit Mohamed. Resolution 0090/2025 (ESN Group) and 0093/2025 (ECR Group) focused on religious freedom and minority rights in Algeria and highlighted the Algerian authorities religion intolerance, with the repression of religious minorities, particularly Christians, and the closure of Protestant churches in Algeria, demands recognition of Ahmadiyya communities, reopening of closed churches, and protection of religious freedom. Resolution 0092/2025 (PPE Group) and 0088/2025 (PfE Group) emphasized financial accountability and conditional EU funding, particularly on accountability on EU funds misused, misallocation and misappropriation. Resolution 0089/2025 (S&D Group) was the most conciliatory with the Algerian military regime emphasizing civil society support and democratic reforms without concrete tangible measures against the regime. The consensus resolution 0087/2025 (Verts/ALE Group) which focuses on international universal commitments, solidarity with Algerian civil society, and ending repression, was voted with an overwhelming majority of 533 votes in favor, 24 against, and 48 abstentions.

The final vote breakdown reflected broad cross-party support from PPE, S&D, ECR, Renew, and Verts/ALE members, with opposition from far-right and nationalist groups, while abstentions came from non-affiliated members, some ECR representatives, and the PfE group.

While still conciliatory and non punitive and non-binding, the resolution B10-0087/2025 marks a significant escalation from the Parliament’s initial debate in November 2024 procedure 2024/2963(RSP), proposing concrete punitive measures against Algeria.

Boualem Sansal, a 75-year-old writer and critic of the Algerian regime was arrested on November 16, 2024, on charges of “undermining state security and territorial integrity.” The case has become a flashpoint in deteriorating Franco-Algerian relations, following France’s recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara in July 2024, and a hybrid warfare from Algeria on French soil using social media influencers to call for terrorist acts and assassinations of Algerian critics living abroad.

Abdelwakil Blamm, journalist and co-founder of the Barakat movement opposed to the candidacy of ex-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, was arrested at the end of December 2024 outside his home in Chéraga (Algiers). For several days, his wife had no news of him, and no institution was able to confirm where he was being held. On January 15, 2025, the Indictment Division refused to release him on bail pending trial. The charges against him include participation in a terrorist organization (article 87 bis of the Penal Code), dissemination of false news likely to undermine public security and order (article 196 bis), and undermining the integrity of national unity (article 79).

Mohamed Tadjadit, born on January 9, 1994 in Bab El Oued, originally from the village of Ihnouchene near Azeffoun in Kabylia, and from a family of Algerian revolutionary martyrs, was arrested on January 16, 2025 after leading a campaign on social media #Manish_Radi (I’m not satisfied). Initially taken into custody at the central police station, he was presented to the public prosecutor at the Rouiba court on January 20, 2025. He was brought before the court for an immediate hearing, and was finally sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, although the public prosecutor had requested ten years’ imprisonment.

While the European Parliament demands the release of Boualem Sansal, Abdelwakil Blamm and Mohamed Tadjadit, three emblematic figures of freedom of expression, it should be recalled that repression in Algeria has reached a level not seen since its independence in 1962: more than 240 prisoners of conscience are currently detained, and thousands of citizens, including former high-ranking officials, activists, politicians and journalists, are forbidden to leave the country. The purge initiated by Mohamed Mediene, Chafik Mesbah and Saïd Chengriha is also affecting the army, with more than 60 generals and a hundred officers incarcerated in military prisons. The cases of journalists Khaled Drareni and Ihsane El Kadi, successively imprisoned and then released, demonstrate how the military regime in Algiers uses justice as a tool of blackmail and intimidation, instrumentalizing the judicial system according to the regime’s political and diplomatic calculations. We also draw attention to the fact that two opponents and iconic figures of Algerian democracy are now in the sights of the intelligence services: Karim Tabbou and Fodil Boumala.

By Abderrahmane Fares