Transferred for intensive care abroad, Abdelmadjid Tebboune will soon complete a month of absence outside his country. As its state of health does not allow it to remain at the helm of the state which more than ever needs decisions commensurate with the severity of the crises shaking the country, Algeria tends to resemble an unmanned ship or a country with a “headache”.
In an ultra presidential regime like ours, the prolonged absence of the President of the Republic can indeed turn into a tragedy, as was the case with the former Head of State Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Since President Tebboune is absent, no less than four Councils of Ministers, almost as many High-Security Council meetings and other high-level meetings have in fact been canceled. Capital decisions that only the President of the Republic, who combines many powers, is authorized to take have, therefore, had to be frozen, pending his possible return. A return covered in mystery, as the images and reliable information was given by the media and attending doctors are lacking. No medical bulletin from nursing staff has been communicated to date and televisions have no longer filmed the president since his hospitalization. The only information available is that without relief, distilled sparingly and according to the formula of the “language of wood”, by the presidency of the republic.
Due to the absence of the Head of State, several key decisions to be taken urgently have been blocked. This is the case for all the major decisions relating to the management of the coronavirus pandemic, which is resuming more vigorously after a period of the ebb. It is the Prime Minister who deals with it, but within the limits of his legal powers. He, for example, decided to rearrange home confinement hours, postpone the start of the academic year and ban Friday prayers in the new mosque in Algiers, but could not go further, as dictated by the seriousness of the health situation. Some think that it was just as important to suspend teaching in schools and return to total confinement as required by the exaggeratedly high number of identified contaminations, but the constitution does not grant it this power, exclusively reserved for the President of the Republic.
The saturation of hospitals also poses a serious problem of patient care. Many Algerians are calling for it, as an example to the army to build rural hospitals that would ease the pressure on civilian hospitals, but the Prime Minister is not authorized to give instructions to the military institution. Only the President of the Republic can do it, but as he is absent, this could not be done, to the chagrin of the civilian medical profession, condemned to face, alone, this too heavy burden.
The absence of the Head of State, who holds all executive powers, is also felt on the political level, marked by a dangerous status quo. A new constitution has certainly been declared legal by the national electoral body, despite the pitiful results of participation (barely 23%), but to be operational, the signature of the President of the Republic is required. Will he be back soon to do it? Nobody knows! Despite this institutional fog, largely due to the undefined medical fate of the President of the Republic, the authorities of repression continue to act, even to double in intensity, by incarcerating activists from various backgrounds. who have dared to demonstrate or denounce management anomalies in hospitals and schools. It is a way of managing that only the President of the Republic has the power to stop, but in his absence the situation seems to degenerate to the point of constituting a serious threat to the stability of the country. Popular discontent is indeed such that it can overflow at any time.
It is also time, but only the president of the republic could do it, to open a dialogue with the hirak to define the possible solutions to this political crisis which paralyzes Algeria since February 22, 2020. Since it will be necessary, one day to another, sit down at a negotiating table, the sooner the better and the prolonged absence of the Head of State, failing which nothing can be done in this direction, is felt like so much time wasted.
We will obviously not forget the economic situation of the country which tends to become more complicated with the passing days and which needs strong measures, which only the President of the Republic could take. Should we borrow abroad when hydrocarbon revenues and foreign exchange reserves will not be sufficient to cover the country’s incompressible needs? What strategy to implement to ward off the announced fall in the oil and gas windfall? Who will make the major arbitrations in the allocation of the budget for the year 2021? Will President Tebboune be in Algeria before the end of the year to sign the next finance law? These are all questions that require the presence of the Head of State and which cannot be legally resolved without him.
We can therefore see to what extent the “bug” created by the absence of the President of the Republic, who holds all executive powers, is seriously felt in the various cogs of the Algerian political regime. Nothing important in the management of the country can be done without him and his absence could even turn into a tragedy if it were to continue in the most total opacity, as is currently the case. Algeria having suffered roughly the same situation as ex-president Bouteflika, should especially not be reproduced. The same causes producing the same effects, there are, obviously, real risks that Algeria, which has not yet digested the post-Bouteflika crisis, will again sink into an even more political and social crisis. serious.