Boualem Sansal was just recently in an Algerian prison, but now, he says, France is where he is being oppressed.
“France is over for me. I’ve got a few months left in this country, and then I’m out of here. I have a few years to live in peace. So I’ll go somewhere, I don’t know where, Belgium, if they accept me, or elsewhere,” Boualem Sansal is heard telling a reporter in a video that has now gone viral on social media.
🗣️ Boualem Sansal : "La France, c'est fini pour moi, il me reste quelques mois à tirer dans ce pays et je me tire", a déclaré l'écrivain à la veille de son intronisation à l'Académie royale de Belgique pic.twitter.com/GPkFa1fAlE
— LCI (@LCI) April 25, 2026His comments came on the eve of being accepted into the Royal Academy of French Language and Culture in Belgium. Sansal was also elected to the French Academy (Académie française) in January 2026, receiving 25 out of 26 votes, just after receiving a pardon from President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and being released from prison in November.
His comments come as a surprise to many, given the lengths to which the French government went to ensure his release.
Sansal had been arrested at Algiers airport in November 2024 upon a return trip from France due to statements he made on the far-right online channel Frontiers concerning Algeria’s borders. His imprisonment stemmed from his comments being deemed a threat to national unity and territorial integrity. Sansal had maintained that the border between Morocco and Algeria was wrongfully established during the French colonial era, arguing that France artificially altered colonial borders to incorporate territory that historically belonged to Morocco into Algeria.
The Franco-Algerian writer also told AFP, “I hate Paris, I don’t think I’m going to stay in France.”
Media reports cite complaints by Sansal that since his return, he has been targeted with hate over his political views. Long known as being anti-migration, given the very visible situation involving his detention in Algeria, people on the left are now highlighting his right-wing stances.
Back in 2021, Sansal did not hold back on his prediction for France unless it engineered a “big reversal” to save it from “Lebanonization” or “Algerization.” Sansal, who won the Arab Literature Prize, shared his opinion on the anniversary of the terrorist massacre at the Bataclan Club in Paris.
Foreseeing a possible civil war in the country, the writer had advised the government to set political correctness aside and strike hard and fast, to avoid “military and Islamist dictatorships.”
A more specific issue that has also created unwanted tensions for Sansal, who has been receiving treatments for various medical issues in Paris, involves the publisher of his new book, La Légende, which covers his time in detention in Algeria (2024-2025). Management of Grasset, owned by right-wing billionaire Vincent Bolloré via Groupe Hachette Livre, demanded a June 2026 release, while the CEO and publishing heavyweight, Olivier Nora, wanted a November release to align with the literary season.
In the end, Nora was fired, replaced by Jean-Christophe Thiery, a close associate of Bolloré. In response, more than 130 writers left in protest. A letter claimed that they felt they were “hostages in an ideological war that seeks to impose authoritarianism everywhere within culture and the media.”
Sansal’s move from the Gallimard publishing house to Grasset itself received a deluge of articles in the French press questioning his motives and essentially accusing him of betraying his publishing house to accept more money and align himself more closely with the ultraconservative Bolloré.
“Does receiving a significantly larger sum justify betrayal?” wrote Le Monde. “Boualem Sansal’s Move from Gallimard to Grasset: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of a Highly Political Transfer.” Libération entitled their piece. Another Libération piece stated: “Why I No Longer Recognise Myself in Boualem Sansal’s Literature?”
Long considered a dual French-Algerian citizen who spent time in France and whose works were published there, Sansal in fact became a French citizen in 2024. He was stripped of his Algerian citizenship in February.
