By yielding to the request of his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to grant a presidential pardon to author Boualem Sansal, Abdelmadjid Tebboune has bowed to a foreign diplomatic pressure, thus discrediting an Algerian judiciary that has convicted other citizens under the same charges, without any foreign head of state advocating for their release.

Behind the words of the official statement on November 10, 2025, which mentioned “humanitarian considerations”, hides an overtly political act. Germany, embarrassed by its silence over the Gaza tragedy, conveniently shows a humanitarian side in Algiers. This selective intervention exposes a double standard in compassion, where morality is wielded as a tool of diplomacy.

Berlin, justifying its support for Israel in the name of a guilt-laden historical memory, found in the Sansal case an occasion to bolster its moral standing at little cost. Presented as a humanitarian act, this gesture is driven less by the logic of law than by that of symbolic restitution. By intervening with Tebboune, Germany grants itself an act of international goodwill without challenging its silence elsewhere, particularly regarding the suffering of Palestinian civilians.

An Algerian Diplomatic Move

For the Algerian authorities, this pardon has all the hallmarks of a tactical move. By responding favorably to Berlin instead of Paris, Tebboune is securing a way out of a sensitive issue, while avoiding the impression of yielding to the former colonial power. Perceived as neutral and respectful, Germany thus becomes a useful channel, allowing Tebboune to display a gesture of openness without losing face.

But this diplomatic maneuver has a cost. It undermines the credibility of a judiciary already perceived as an instrumentalized one. When clemency becomes a buffer variable in the game of international relations, morality becomes no longer a principle, but a posture.

In short, the Sansal affair exposes two parallel cynicisms: that of a Europe dispensing compassion according to its interests, and that of an Algerian regime trading judicial rigor for symbolic gain. In both cases, humanism serves less to liberate than to legitimize.