For the launch of his campaign, Thursday, August 15, three weeks before the early presidential election scheduled for Saturday, September 7, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune painted the image of a state on the brink of the abyss, victim of various plots, saved by his action. According to him, before he came to power, the Algerian state had “collapsed”the economy “collapsed” et the country was the subject of “sabotage”. Then, he said, “shortages” were orchestrated and forest fires “knowingly provoked” in summer 2021 “in a state known for its hostility towards the country”without directly naming Morocco. He also claimed to have “achieved results that could save the country” and assured that“Algeria’s voice is heard abroad today”before asking for the ” trust “ Algerians to continue his mission.
Abdelmadjid Tebboune no longer speaks of “Blessed Hirak”in reference to the popular protest movement that occurred in 2019, as he did immediately after his election on December 12, 2019, with an official turnout of 39.8%, the lowest in the history of presidential elections in Algeria. The president’s slogan is now the“New Algeria”.
Read the decryption | In Algeria, a president and two extras for an election decided in advance
Add to your selections
The arrests and trials of ministers and businessmen gravitating around Said Bouteflika – the brother of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika who had publicly humiliated Abdelmadjid Tebboune when he was prime minister – are presented as proof of a ” change “ of regime and policy. Insufficient, however, to convince public opinion, which does not forget that the candidate for his succession was a long-time minister of Abdelaziz Bouteflika and supported the latter’s fifth term project. But the systematic and continuous repression against Hirak activists and the control of a press heavily dependent on state advertising prevent any debate on the results of a mandate marked at its beginnings by a long period of paralysis.
A major clean-up in the military hierarchy
First, the sudden death due to a heart attack of Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s godfather and former army chief of staff, General Ahmed Gaïd Salah, on December 23, 2019, ten days after his election, caught him off guard and prompted the start of a major clean-up within the military hierarchy. Abdelmadjid Tebboune was supposed to relaunch himself with the referendum on the revision of the Constitution, which was held on December 1is November 2020 but, four days before the election, he was urgently evacuated to Germany after contracting Covid-19. The constitutional revision, which enshrines a strengthening of presidential power, granting the army a mission to defend the “vital and strategic interests of the country” and the possibility of deploying troops abroad, did not revolutionize the regime, but the turnout in the referendum demonstrated popular disinterest. Only 23.7% of those registered participated.
You have 65.16% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
