Algeria's president surprisingly dismisses Communication Minister

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Tuesday surprisingly dismissed Communication Minister Mohamed Bouslimani, who had held the post since the end of 2021, without revealing the reasons for his decision.

"The general secretariat of the minister has been entrusted with the management of current affairs," the presidency said in a press release issued Tuesday evening.

This dismissal comes three months after the president carried out a major reshuffle of Aïmene Benabderrahmane's government, which affected eleven portfolios, including the Foreign Minister, Ramtane Lamamra, in the midst of various diplomatic crises with Spain and Morocco.

The politician played an important role in the democratic crisis between Algiers and Madrid, provoked by the Spanish government's change of position on Western Sahara in March 2022 and which worsened when Algeria decided in June 2022 to suspend the Spanish-Algerian Friendship Treaty.

It also did so in its confrontation with neighbouring Morocco, with whom it broke off diplomatic relations in August 2021 for its 'hostile actions', including its alleged support for two opposition groups that Algiers labels as terrorist movements: the Islamist Rachad and the Movement for Self-Determination in Kabylia (MAK).

The Minister of Trade and a man close to the head of state, Kamel Rezig, was also removed after a mandate marked by continuous controversy, such as his intention to sanction shops that used a language other than Arabic and his campaign against "products containing colours or symbols against moral values" in reference to the rainbow, the symbol of the LGBT community.

Since coming to power in 2019, Tebboune has carried out numerous reshuffles, and just a month earlier, the state agency APS had evoked a "furious" president against Benabderrahmane's cabinet for its "pace in dealing with numerous files" and its misinterpretation of "presidential orientations".