Algeria: on the eve of elections, Tebboune presents his balance sheet to army generals

On Wednesday 8 May, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune visited the headquarters of the Ministry of National Defence, where he was received with great fanfare by General Saïd Chengriha, the army chief of staff. As he is also Minister of National Defence, the President of the Republic cannot receive such a welcome. All he is doing is visiting the headquarters of a minister of which he is the head and in which he is supposed to exercise ministerial functions. 

It is not the first time that the Minister of National Defence has been received with such an artifice. "As if to make him understand that he has no power over the army and that he is just a guest in the military fortress," commented one observer. For Tebboune, the status accorded to him by his hosts matters little. He has come to present the results of his four years in power, implicitly expressing his desire to be re-appointed head of state.

All indications are that Tebboune has entered the election campaign begging for the blessing of the generals, the real decision-makers behind the scenes. While boasting of a balance sheet that he considers positive in all areas, he did not hesitate to bestow laurels of glory on the army, guarded by his friend General Saïd Chengriha, whom he thanked in his speech for having modernised it. 

Tebboune's visit to the headquarters of the Ministry of National Defence comes at a time when the scandal of the conspiracy hatched against him by the head of the external security services, General Djebbar Mehenna, under the discreet and "invisible" direction of the Chief of Staff, General Saïd Chengriha, whose son, Major Chafik Chengriha, is stationed in the military office of the Algerian Embassy in Paris, has been uncovered.  

This conspiracy is now known to all, especially to the Elysée, which possesses all the documents contained in the smartphones and laptops found in the possession of Saïd Bensdira, alias "the London rat", who is still in Paris under judicial surveillance. 

So far, apart from the release of former police chief Farid Zinedine Bencheikh, who was the first to reveal the military plot to him after recovering the first smartphone from the "London rat", there has been no reaction from President Tebboune: "He seems to want to drag his feet," according to one of his close associates. "He prefers to go his way with them rather than against them, sponging off this episode while entrusting Chengriha with the task of resolving the Djebbar Mehenna affair," adds our source. It is clear. Tebboune does not like confrontation, especially when it comes to the army. Nor does he like to meddle in internal conflicts within the military. He has made Chengriha the undisputed head of the military establishment and has placed all his trust in him. A trust that General Chengriha will undoubtedly reinforce by cracking down on the conspirators, led by Djebbar Mehenna. 

Tebboune intends to conduct his election campaign hand in hand with the military, as we saw yesterday in unusual images never before seen in the most dictatorial of militarised republics. Tebboune's portrait stood between those of Chengriha and the most bloodthirsty of the military, General Abdelkader Haddad alias Nacer El-Djen (the devil). It's mind-boggling! The script was devised by this same Nacer El-Djen. As can be seen in the video that has circulated on social networks. Onlookers gathered around the three portraits, the most prominent of which was that of the man "who shot hundreds of Algerians in the head in exchange for substantial bonuses", as one of his former subordinates, Staff Sergeant Houari, pointed out in a historic video.

This media appearance in support of General Nacer El-Djen sends a message to Tebboune, who has refused to sign the decree appointing this criminal to head the General Directorate of Internal Security. Tebboune backed down under pressure from humanitarian organisations, which threaten to appeal to international bodies and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to denounce the appointment of a bloodthirsty man and demand that he be brought to justice for crimes against humanity.

General Nacer El-Djen, who replaces General Djamel Mejdoub Kehal as head of the DGSI, is officially the head of the Internal Security Operational Research Centre, known as the "Antar Centre". This centre is terribly feared by Algerians, as it remains the main torture centre for opponents of the current regime. A centre where many victims were subjected to the worst abuses, including sodomy, as young Walid Nekkiche and gendarmerie sergeant Mohamed Abdallah denounced before the prosecutor of the Algiers court during their respective trials.

The portrait of Nacer El-Djen next to that of President Tebboune could in no way provide the support that Tebboune dreams of, on the popular stage.