Bad day for Tebboune in Lisbon
Tebboune could not have imagined such a reception from the small Algerian community in Lisbon. Three eggs were thrown at him, one of which hit the back door of his car, brought specially from Algiers, and a group of Algerians living in the Portuguese capital chanted slogans hostile to the person of their country's president, to the great astonishment of Lisbon's officials and inhabitants. "Tebboune the fraudster brought back by the military, civil state and not military state, free the detainees..." and other bird names chanted against the Algerian president. It is the expression of a fed-up people who no longer want this despotic regime. A regime that represses every democratic impulse, every free opinion and that imprisons citizens every day on the false charge of "attacking national security" or "attacking the person of the president of the republic" or "unarmed assembly", thus violating the constitution that guarantees the freedom to demonstrate peacefully.
A state visit that got off to a bad start
On his arrival at Portela airport in the evening, where he was not received by any high-ranking Portuguese figures, the Algerian president was content to spend the evening in the company of the Algerian diplomatic staff accredited in Lisbon. His activity on the first day of his state visit was limited to a meeting with selected members of the small Algerian community in Lisbon. No contact with the Portuguese authorities.
It was not until the following morning, at around 10 a.m., that the state visit really began with a solemn welcome by his Portuguese counterpart, Mr Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in Praça do Império (Empire Square), near the seat of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic. The welcoming ceremony will be followed by a face-to-face meeting between the two heads of state before discussions are extended to the delegations of both countries. The meeting with the Portuguese host ended with a press conference in a room where there were no Algerian journalists.
After leaving his host, Tebboune went to Lisbon's city hall, where he was symbolically handed the keys to the city. A city in which he suffered the bitterest humiliation of his life when he was booed by the Algerian community and his car was egged. This was enough to spoil a lacklustre stay that did not live up to the expectations of the Algerian regime, which was horrified to see that the state visit brought it nothing.
It should be noted that the Algerian press, whether public or private, was not invited to accompany the president on his trip to Portugal. This has become a habit with Tebboune, who, however, maintained good relations with journalists and press chiefs when he was housing minister. This explains the scant media coverage of this visit. The Algerian press did not even have the programme of the visit. Not even the dinner hosted by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was announced by the Algerian media. Not even the presidency's website. Under other skies, the absence of the press would have been qualified as a boycott expressing a divorce between the media and the country's supreme authority. This is not at all the case, and it is unthinkable in a country where the press is totally subservient to the government. No doubt this absence is dictated by the decision-makers behind the scenes, for reasons that are easy to guess.
The other point to note is the transport of the presidential car from Algiers to Lisbon. Tebboune travelled in it during this visit. According to information from sources close to El-Mouradia, this car is specially equipped for Tebboune, who suffers from a foot disability since the operation he underwent in Germany in 2020. This disability is clearly visible in his walking alongside his Portuguese counterpart. This could be seen during his visit to Turkey in May 2022.