"The visit made this Monday to Algiers by the president of the Italian Council of Ministers, Mario Draghi, is a slap in the face of Spain after its breakthrough on the Western Sahara issue": in line with Spanish media, the Algerian information site also writes "Dernieres Info d'Algerie" (Dia) implicitly referring to Madrid's support for Morocco against the independence movement of the deserted former Spanish colony, supported instead by Algiers.
"Algeria, called upon by Europe to supply it with gas, has preferred to consolidate the partnership with Italy to the detriment of Spain, which will no longer benefit from the same consideration as before by Algeria, due to the turning point", he adds. the site.
"In this sense, it is expected that next May the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, will go on a working visit to Italy to further consolidate the centuries-old bilateral relations with Italy", notes Dia.
"To this end, Mario Draghi said that his country is working to further strengthen and consolidate its cooperation relations with Algeria, Italy's main trading partner on the African continent", he added.
Draghi's Monday mission to Algeria did not go unnoticed in Spain, which is heavily dependent on North African gas.
And in some sectors of the Iberian public opinion, after the new agreement on energy supplies between Rome and Algiers, fears about a possible weakening of the Spanish position on the matter are making their way.
In fact, Madrid is receiving signs of strong discontent from the Maghreb country, linked to geopolitical issues, as also underlined by the website "Dernières Info d'Algérie" (Dia).
In those parts, the recent position taken by the Spanish center-left government in favor of Morocco - Algeria's main regional rival - on the thorny question of Western Sahara, a territory disputed for many years between Rabat and separatists supported by Algiers, was not at all liked.
A sudden turning point, after decades of strategic neutrality, which allowed Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to announce the end of a diplomatic crisis and the beginning of a "new partnership" with Morocco.
But to which the Algerians reacted by calling back the ambassador in Madrid and threatening to raise the price of gas.
Thus, while the Algeria-Italy energy axis heats up, in Spain the conservative media are lashing out at Sánchez, accused of having compromised relations with the North African country.
"While distancing itself from our country, Algeria, one of our main suppliers of natural gas, has started a not hidden approach to Italy", says for example a harsh editorial from El Mundo.
"There is no doubt that the next failure of the government will be that of having lost the opportunity for Spain to become the main distribution center of Algerian gas for all of Europe, in favor of Italy", adds the newspaper.
Criticisms echoed by those of the opposition (Popular Party, Vox).
The executive's response comes with messages aimed at calming the most restless souls, in a context of social tensions due to the expensive bills that have been growing for months.
"Gas supplies from Algeria are guaranteed", government spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez said, adding that "Italy's situation is not comparable to that of Spain", since "Italy's dependence on Russian gas is 40% "while that of Spain" is 8% ".
Italy certainly does not enter into a controversy entirely internal to Spain and, for now only, in the media.
Italian sources close to the energy dossier limit themselves to underlining how Algeria has unused quantities of gas and that, therefore, as noted also in the press conference by the spokesman of the Spanish government, Madrid does not risk on supplies.
Moreover - the same sources assure - Italy is willing to create infrastructures of mutual benefit. "And in the meantime, it continues to search for partners who can help it reduce its dependence on Russian gas. This is the key to reading Mario Draghi's next trips in Congo, Angola and Mozambique.