the essential
Coming to power on the wave of Hirak, this popular protest movement which obtained the resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika in 2019, Abdelmajjid Tebboune, 78 years old, was re-elected president of Algeria last September by 84% of the 43% of Algerians having voted. But behind him, the soldiers are watching.
Who rules Algeria today? A question that is anything but anecdotal in the current context. Algeria, 45 million inhabitants, is now the largest country in Africa since the partition of Sudan, its army the second on the continent and its economic growth has been praised by the World Bank. But here it is…
If Abdelmajjid Tebboune was re-elected to the presidency last September… The reality of power has always been more opaque, in Algiers, where no one has forgotten that this former prefect had been dubbed by General Salah, “interim” of the after Bouteflika.
“The real strong man”
“In fact, President Tebboune is the front of a current which has managed to gain ascendancy over him in the state apparatus, that of the chief of staff Saïd Chengriha”, deciphers Karim B. (1 ), historian and specialist in Algerian politics. Saïd Chengriha “the true strong man of Algeria”, is also summed up in writing by academic Jean-Pierre Filiu.
Elected by less than ten million registered out of twenty-four in December 2019, Abdelmajjid Tebboune's first mission was to calm the millions of Algerians in Hirak, who marched every Friday to denounce incompetence, carelessness , corruption and repression led by an FLN which ” [leur] had “confiscated the Algerian revolution and its hopes.”
Deterioration of the geopolitical context
Pardoned detainees, a big clean-up among the most visible corrupt people of the Bouteflika regime… The hope raised by President Tebboune will be cut short: “The arrival of covid 19 suddenly made it possible to ban all demonstrations and the leaders of the opposition were incarcerated”, essentially recalls Karim B. But beyond the military taste for muzzling opposition and commanding Algeria, it is also the deterioration of the regional and international geopolitical context which served the interests of the chief of staff of the armed forces Saïd Chengriha to impose himself on the president and be appointed delegate for national defense in November.
Also read:
Crisis between France and Algeria: “humiliation”, “escalation”… has the relationship between the two countries reached a point of no return?
“He was able to rely on a new situation: that of 'besieged' Algeria because there are wars everywhere on the borders. Sahel, Libya, tensions with Morocco, the instability favored the voice of the military within of the state apparatus”, explains the historian.
At the end of July 2023, the Moroccan online news site Le360 will go so far as to headline “President Tebboune's men in open war against the clan of generals”, while the general staff gets rid of them , bosses of oil, phosphates or mobile telephony by using alleged corruption cases and banning them from leaving the country.
A movement inspired by Boumédiène
However, this army, also heir to M'Henna Djebbar, powerful head of intelligence who landed last September, and retired generals Khaled Nezzar and Mohamad Mediene, is no longer that of liberation. Resulting from the war against the Islamists of the “black decade” but in the process of rejuvenation and professionalization, “with three women promoted to general, too”, “it carries a 'developmentalist' current which is inspired by Boumédiène. Before, it was power for power's sake, now, it is still power but to develop Algeria without subjecting it to the free market and by purchasing social peace, with unemployment insurance, retirement at 60, allowances for housewives”, notes Karim B.
Autonomy, independence
Industrialization, opening of railway lines, phosphate mines or reopening of old gold deposits: “beyond gas revenue, it is a nationalist current which wants to gain food autonomy and technological independence for country in all areas and regain its rank as a stabilizing regional power undermined by neighboring crises,” he analyzes. “Without creating new dependencies with Russia, Turkey and China”, its main partners, “because it is diversifying its contracts with Europe, and its arms purchases with Germany and the United Kingdom”. And if the cold reigns with Paris, “it goes very well with Italy”. As for the political future? Impacted by the departure of opponents and qualified young people, “the priority is no longer democracy but development for a majority of Algerians who no longer believe in elections and no longer want civil war”, believes Karim B.
