Algeria's president announces the formation of the new government
Algerian society expressed its discontent with a massive abstention of 77% in the legislative elections of 12 June. Several opposition political groups also decided to boycott the elections. However, a month after the vote, Algeria finally knows its new government in the midst of growing social discontent.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune appointed the new government on Wednesday. The former governor of the Bank of Algeria, Aïmen Benabderrahmane, will head the government as prime minister, replacing Abdelaziz Djerad, as announced last week, while simultaneously holding the finance portfolio.
Tebboune has made few changes with respect to the previous government, although he has opted to reduce the number of portfolios. The Algerian cabinet will go from 36 ministers to 34, 15 of whom were part of the previous government. Most of them have therefore retained their posts in the administration.
Among the new faces in the new government is Ramdane Lamamra, who will head the foreign affairs portfolio as a replacement for Sabri Boukadoum. Lamamra thus returns to a post he held between 2013 and 2017. The diplomat served as deputy prime minister during the last weeks of Abdelaziz Bouteflika's mandate.
Lamamra also held the post of African Union (AU) Commissioner for Peace and Security before joining the Algerian government, and the post of High Representative for Silencing the Guns in Africa - also under the AU - once out of office.
Former president of Algeria's Supreme Court, Abderrachid Tebbi, takes over from unpopular minister Belkacem Zeghmati as justice minister. The latter has led judicial investigations into corruption cases against individuals linked to former president Bouteflika.
Engineer Mohamed Arkab will retain his post as head of the energy ministry. Arkab's main challenge is to recover the state's main source of financing. Algeria, an OPEC member dependent on 'black gold', saw its oil revenues drastically reduced in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis and is trying to recover from the blow.
Health minister Abderrahmane Benbouzid will also remain in office. According to experts, to give continuity to the institution in the midst of the health crisis and the vaccination campaign.
Meanwhile, Kamel Belyud, interior minister, Yucef Belmahdi, religious affairs minister, and Kamel Rezig, trade minister, remain in the cabinet. The latter, who has been embroiled in several controversies following his statements against the use of non-Arabic as a business language, has also been assigned to the export promotion sector.
nother new development is the appointment of four women to the executive, two of whom served in the previous cabinet. Samia Mwalfi as Minister of Environment, Wafa Shallal as Minister of Culture, Kowther Krikou as Minister of National Solidarity, and lawyer Basma Azwar in charge of relations with Parliament.
The new government has been approved by the president and the Council of Ministers, as well as the National People's Assembly and the Council of the Nation.
Technocrats form the backbone of the new government. The best example is Prime Minister Benabderrahmane, who will lead a cabinet made up mostly of technocrats from outside party politics and prominent members of the political formations that have supported President Tebboune in recent months.
The appointments have fulfilled the Muslim Brotherhood's worst predictions. No member of the Society for the Peace Movement (Hams), the highest representatives of Islamism in Algeria, will be part of the executive despite being the third most voted party.
Hams leader Abderrazak Makri announced that the party rejected the offer made by Tebboune in the framework of political consultations between the presidency and the winning parties in the elections.
The president asked the Islamists to submit a list of 27 candidates and then selected four of them to join the cabinet. This offer did not meet the aspirations of the Society for the Peace Movement.
Makri stated that "the offer received by the party to enter the government does not allow us to influence politics and the economy, as we had committed ourselves to the voters". For this reason, the party declined to join the government.
Algeria intends to gauge social support for the new government in the coming weeks. The social, political and economic crisis in the North African country was brought to the surface by the massive abstention, to which the president did not attach any importance.
