A year before the presidential election scheduled for December 2024, the Algerian president still needs to make known about his intentions.
Will leave, will not leave? With less than eleven months until the election, which will be held in December 2024, it is unknown whether Abdelmadjid Tebboune intends to run again. Knowing that it is not the habit of Algerian presidents to decide on their future at the palace of El Mouradia months in advance, we will certainly have to wait until the end of the first semester to know the decision of the head of the outgoing state.
This election will have nothing in common with that of December 2019, which brought him to the head of the country the day after the fall of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, caused by the Hirak movement.
Master of Clocks
What do we know today about the intentions of the current president? At the start of his mandate, he suggested to his visitors that he would not stay in power forever. His illness – he was seriously affected by COVID-19 and miraculously recovered – supported the thesis that he could pass the torch at the end of this first five-year term. It seems that his opinion has evolved.
If he decides to run again, the president, 78 years old, will be the big favorite in the election. In the space of four years, he indeed became the master of clocks. Hirak, who contested his election? Rolled, neutralized, anesthetized. Since February 2022, protests in the street have been prohibited under penalty of legal proceedings. The army, which had thrown all its weight into getting him elected? Rarely has she seemed so in symbiosis with the presidency. Abdelmadjid Tebboune appears regularly in the company of Saïd Chengriha, the chief of staff.
The press, virulent towards its predecessor, was also put back on “the straight and narrow”. Discredited, and erased, the opposition is also struggling to make itself heard. The only space for protest and free expression is social networks. Suffice it to say that a boulevard opens in front of Abdelmadjid Tebboune. The only real question is: does he want to stay in office until December 2028?
