Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune delivered another of his periodic media performances speaking for nearly two hours with carefully selected state journalists. As has become routine, the president talked a great deal and said remarkably little of substance, even as the domestic economy deteriorated and Algeria’s diplomatic irrelevance deepens.
Algerians waited in vain for clarity or accountability as Tebboune’s administration faces with a cascade of recent setbacks, including deadly forest fires, the reactivation of the death penalty, the abrupt rupture of diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates, an unprecedented military intervention in Niger, and the approaching UN Security Council session on the Sahara.
Instead, Tebboune indulged in his familiar mix of repetition, deflection, and selective counter-truths.
The most revealing moment came on the Sahara issue. Tebboune insisted Algeria would not be “more Sahrawi than the Sahrawis” and that it would accept whatever solution the Polisario Front accepts. This breaks with years of speaking on behalf of the Polisario’s separatist plot while taking retaliatory measures against countries that backed the Moroccan autonomy plan.
Tebboune claimed the latest UN Security Council resolution identified only Morocco and the Polisario as parties, directly contradicting the text of Resolution 2797, which clearly designates Algeria as a principal party to the conflict.
However, he said Algeria respects the resolution which calls the parties to negotiate on the basis of Morocco’s autonomy plan.
Analysts see this as a careful attempt to prepare a propaganda-saturated Algerian public for the eventual acceptance of Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara under an autonomy arrangement.
As usual, Tebboune did not miss the opportunity to make high-profile announcements that have yet to materialize.
The president is notorious for uttering empty promises. Where is the Malaysian investor who was supposed to inject nearly 20 billion dollars into Algerian industry? Where is the long-promised road to Mauritania? Where is the fully operational Gara Djebilet train that was endlessly hyped? Where is the Trans-Saharan gas pipeline that Tebboune keeps promoting while attacking the competing Atlantic corridor involving the interests of more than a dozen African countries?
And what of the endlessly postponed $400 billion GDP target, whose deadline keeps slipping from early 2026 to late 2027 and beyond, or the wildly inflated desalination promises of producing over a billion cubic metres of water per day, or the claimed recovery of 20 to 30 billion dollars in looted funds that remain largely unaccounted for in liquid form?
The International Monetary Fund’s latest report paints a sobering picture of large fiscal deficits, eroding foreign-exchange reserves, and rising public debt. Tebboune has publicly played down and rejected key IMF forecasts.
