It is unclear what is more worrying: his prolonged silence or the chilling indifference with which his absence is received. Let us be clear: no one, neither in Algeria nor elsewhere, still believes in the fable of a head of state in command. Tebboune is nothing more than a weary extra in a play written and performed by the real director of the regime: General Saïd Chengriha.
A rich country, a poor people… thank you Tebboune!
Domestically, the record is disastrous. Shortages of milk, semolina, medicine, collapsing infrastructure, endemic corruption… The country is overflowing with hydrocarbons but Algerians queue for cooking oil. Worse still, tragedies such as the bus crash into the Oued El Harrache cruelly highlight the failure of a power obsessed with diplomatic obsessions and anti-Moroccan speeches, yet incapable of securing a simple bridge or renovating equipment that still dates back to the colonial era.
While Tebboune distributes millions to his “African brothers” to buy support against Morocco, his own citizens are crammed into dilapidated hospitals. This is the absurd résumé of his presidency: generous abroad, but miserly to the bone with his own people.
Internationally, Tebboune has become persona non grata. Unwelcome in Rabat, ignored by Europe, suspected in the Sahel of playing with the fire of terrorism, and now even marginalized by Moscow, which sees Algiers as nothing more than a bargain-basement arms client.
In the Arab world? Apart from Doha and Tunis, no one opens their door to Tebboune anymore. Even his rare trips abroad look more like medical check-ups than state visits.
The military regime in recycling mode:
But what is Tebboune really worth? Nothing more than a pawn, propelled by Ahmed Gaïd Salah after the fall of Bouteflika, then kept alive on political life support by Chengriha. Today, Chengriha already appears as the strongman, proudly posing before the cameras alongside victims of the Al Harrach accident, while the phantom president shines by his absence.
The “Tebboune sequence” is nearing its end:
Illness, medical coup, or simple sidelining? It matters little. What counts for the regime is to change its façade. The Algerian military system has always needed a civilian mask to hide its true face: that of an aging junta, deaf to its people and obsessed with its Moroccan neighbor.
A disguised “sixth mandate” of Bouteflika:
The irony of history is that Tebboune was supposed to embody renewal after Bouteflika’s downfall. In reality, he replayed its worst scenario: prolonged absences, a paralyzed presidency, economic collapse, and international isolation. All of it without charisma, without vision, without courage.
Today, Algerians are left wondering if he is even alive. But that is not the real question. Alive or dead, Tebboune is already politically buried. And with him, an entire regime wavers, trapped in its contradictions and its lies. The curtain falls on a phantom presidency. Enter the next puppet.
Translated from Abderrazzak Boussaid’s French article – le7tv