The President of the Republic criticized supporters of a hard line with Algeria on Monday, during a visit to a hospital in Ariège where he regretted that the integration of foreign practitioners was still an administrative headache.
Published on: 04/27/2026 - 7:21 p.m.
The French president did not mince his words. Emmanuel Macron launched, Monday April 27, during a hospital visit, a dig at the supporters of a hard line with the Algerian power, regretting "all the mobs" who want to "get angry with Algeria".
“Go tell all the madmen who explain to us that we should get angry with Algeria,” said the President of the Republic while visiting the Lavelanet hospital, in Ariège.
The system of practitioners qualified outside the European Union (Padhue), "it's still a mess. It's something that drives me crazy! It's the madness of the French system", he also noted in front of a doctor from Oran (Algeria).
He deplored the fact that we are not making their lives easier by making them retake competitive examinations, even though they are contributing to the fight against medical deserts.
“These are remarkable people that we put to work, who do medicine, who are in the hospital and, the day we have to give them tenure (...) we start from scratch, we have to pass a competitive exam to piss off the world,” he pointed out.
“We have a system that works on its head”
The CNAM (Health Insurance Fund) "does the system the old way. That is to say in everyone's head, we have to do medical regulation through supply so, the longer we piss people off, the better because it will cost us less", continued Emmanuel Macron. “What is needed is the opposite (...). We have a system that is working on its head.”
As of January 1, 2025, 19,154 doctors, qualified abroad outside the EU and who officially practice in France, were registered with the Order of Physicians. Among them, 38.8% graduated in Algeria, 15.1% in Tunisia, 8.6% in Syria, 7.4% in Morocco, and 4% in Lebanon, according to available statistics.
Bruno Retailleau denounces a “politics of good feelings”
“Failing to have the courage to be firm with the Algerian leaders, the president prefers to insult the French who refuse to deny themselves,” reacted on
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LR presidential candidate Bruno Retailleau denounced the “false pretext” put forward by Emmanuel Macron to “hide the real problems” with Algeria. “Emmanuel Macron attacked those who, like me, are in favor of firmness with Algeria, in particular under the pretext of administrative burdens for foreign doctors,” said the head of the Republicans in a press release, believing that it is a “false pretext (which) only aims to hide the real problems”.
“The problem is not the Algerian doctors but the hundreds of dangerous OQTFs who no longer have anything to do in France and whom the Algiers regime refuses to take back,” he added, referring to the Algerians targeted by Obligations to leave French territory (OQTF). “With the Algiers regime, the policy of good feelings is doomed to failure,” he concluded.
With AFP
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