Tebboune delivers his first address to the nation in his four years as head of state
President Tebboune addressed the nation at the Palais des Nations at the Club des Pins, in the western suburbs of Algiers, a few days after presenting it by Presidential Decree no. 23-462 of 19 December 2023, convening the two chambers of Parliament.
Tebboune delivers his first address to the nation in 4 years
This is the second time that a President of the Algerian Republic has solemnly addressed the people through their elected representatives. The first was in 1977, just over a year after the late Houari Boumediene was elected President of the Republic on 10 December 1976. At that time, the Algerian parliament was unicameral.
After a 12-year freeze following the coup d'état of 19 June 1965, which deposed Ahmed Ben Bella, the first President of the Algerian Republic, through his Minister of National Defence and Vice-President of the Governing Council, Houari Boumediene, the Algerian electorate was convened on 25 February 1977 to elect the new National Assembly. This assembly was attended by some of the leading figures on the Algerian political scene, including its President Rabah Bitat, one of the 22 historic members who had launched the 1 November 1954 revolution for national independence.
The President of the Council of the Nation, Salah Goudjil (93), the President of the National People's Assembly (APN), Brahim Boughali (60), the Prime Minister, Nadir Larbaoui (75), the President of the Constitutional Court, Omar Belhadj, the Chief of Staff of the National People's Army (ANP), Army General Saïd Chengriha (78), and other senior government officials attended the ceremony. The Algerian president began his speech by congratulating those in attendance and declaring his "pride in standing before elected representatives without the support of money, clean or dirty".
As if the election campaigns of the MPs present had been conducted free of charge and without any financial outlay. It is true that Tebboune shares a common denominator with the members of the Algerian parliament: the boycott of elections by the Algerian people. This makes them poorly elected and unpopular representatives.
It was a somewhat complicated exercise for the Algerian president. At times he read out the text prepared for him, at others he improvised and went completely off topic, even going so far as to make a link between the exploitation of the large iron ore mine at Gara Djebilet in the southwest of the country and the phosphate mine at Bled El-Hadba in Tébessa in the east.
By presenting a bleak picture of Bouteflika's tenure, the president has discredited himself in the eyes of Algerians, who do not forget that he was minister for 17 years and even prime minister under the regime he now blames for all the country's ills. A multitude of gaffes and the use of populist language detracted from the solemnity of the speech.
In his string of gaffes, which Algerians describe as lies, the president returned to the famous story of the recovery of funds embezzled by his former cronies in the Bouteflika regime. If a few months ago he announced the recovery of 20 billion dollars, this time he increased the figure by a good ten to thirty.
For having expressed doubts about this figure, journalist El-Kadi Ihsane was sentenced to seven years in prison. In other words, whatever Tebboune proposes as a figure must be taken at face value, even if it is unrealistic.
This sum advanced by Tebboune is, in reality, the amount of funds seized in dinars from the Algerian bank accounts and real estate of ministers, generals and industrialists arrested and convicted of illicit enrichment. Not a single dollar was seized from their foreign accounts or from any property acquired outside Algeria.
In addition to this very dubious record, Tebboune has launched into a series of very unattainable promises, including that of placing Algeria at the head of phosphate producers in Africa, certainly unaware that the contract signed with the Chinese to produce 10 million tonnes per year by 2022 has not yet achieved its objectives.
We do not understand why the Algerian president mentioned phosphates, insisting that Algeria will soon be the world's leading phosphate producer. Is he unaware that Morocco has the world's largest phosphate reserves and is present on all the world's markets? At best, Algeria could only claim 5th place in the world, while Morocco has long been in 3rd place.
Tebboune, who is only a year away from the end of his mandate, has every interest in reviewing his plans with lucidity and realism if he wants to stand for re-election at the head of a state marked by the age of its leaders. These gerontoids, who are no longer in tune with a young population, are mainly responsible for the multidimensional crisis that Algeria has been experiencing for several years.
