Is Tebboune a hostage of the army?

Since he took power with the blessing of his military mentor, President Tebboune of Algeria has not left the capital and has not visited any Algerian town leading many to say that he is imprisoned in the Al Mouradia palace and confirming his status as a civilian puppet of a military junta that holds a firm grip on the state apparatus.

Algeria’s King maker chief of staff Chengriha and his civilian façade Tebboune have often relegated the country’s domestic problems in favor of focusing on polishing Algeria’s image and role abroad, in a typical authoritarian penchant.

The Chengriha-Tebboune couple, lacking electoral legitimacy following the mass boycott of all polls, conspired against a youthful people that demanded a clean break with the junta that ruled the country and squandered its oil wealth.

Together with the crackdown on dissidents, Algeria chose a set of distraction tactics that pin all Algeria’s social, economic and political problems on Morocco and to a lower extent on France and Israel.

In these tactics, Tebboune has always contradicted himself and shown that he is only executing orders of his mentors in the army.

As Algeria craves foreign recognition, it has only achieved the opposite by demonizing its neighbor and stoking anti-semitic rhetoric.

Algeria, with an oil and gas dependent economy and double-digit inflation and unemployment, cannot project power abroad while its youth continue to risk their lives at sea.

Even as it aspires to host international tournaments, Algeria is reflecting an image of a military dominated state.

No images illustrate eloquently Tebboune’s status as a puppet as the image of him receiving FIFA and CAF chiefs in a room where chief of staff Chengriha is seated in the front seat!

Every state has an army but the army has a state in Algeria