The “Clown of Algiers” Makes Us Laugh Again: Algeria Has Joined the G20!

This Friday evening, Algeria once again offered the world a free performance worthy of a traveling circus. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, a.k.a. the “Clown of Algiers,” once again stole the spotlight during his televised meeting with Algerian media. True to his burlesque style—an awkward mix of improvisation and absurdly invented figures—the puppet president managed to outdo his own record of lies by announcing that… Algeria is now a member of the G20! Yes, you heard that right.

In the room, even the microphones seemed to choke back nervous laughter, unable to handle such an outrageous claim. In the absence of bread for the people, the military regime serves up a circus instead. After conjuring up imaginary growth rates, fictional exports, and miraculous foreign reserves, here comes the latest fantasy: Algeria’s fictitious admission into the club of the world’s twenty largest economies.

Tebboune seems determined to stick to his favorite act: selling illusions to a people already suffocated by poverty. But behind this grotesque stage performance, the cold reality of numbers reveals an economy in a state of total collapse.

Because honestly, what “economic power” is the “Clown of Algiers” talking about? A country whose state coffers survive only thanks to oil revenues that fluctuate with the global market? A country that has failed to diversify its economy for 60 years, where the slightest drop in oil prices sends the whole system into panic?

While Tebboune fiddles with fantasies of grandeur, reality hits hard:

A collapsed national currency, the dinar, shredded into confetti against foreign currencies.

Endemic unemployment, hitting young people the hardest—sacrificed by a regime whose only project is repression and propaganda.

Massive imports, even of basic goods, proving that Algeria produces almost nothing except gas and oil.

A ghost-like industrial sector, ravaged by corruption and the incompetence of the generals.

And yet, despite this ocean of failure, Tebboune dares to puff out his chest and dream of standing shoulder to shoulder with Trump or Xi Jinping. At this rate, his next invention might be Algeria’s imminent entry into the conquest of Mars!

In truth, this was not a presidential speech but a failed clown act—a desperate attempt to disguise the bankruptcy of a country held hostage by a military junta. The people, however, care little for these grotesque and laughable tales: they demand bread, dignity, and a future—not free tickets to an endless circus.

Abderrazzak Boussaid / Le7tv