President Abdelmadjid Tebboune sat down Monday for another of his tedious interviews with a group of sycophant state television journalists.
The format that has become a hallmark of his presidency but rarely delivers the accountability Algerians are waiting for.
Over more than two hours, the broadcast, aired on a delay by public media, veered from wildfire mismanagement to regional bluster to a startling burst of crude language directed at Algeria’s own neighbor.
Algeria has spent weeks battling forest fires that have claimed lives and property, exposing what critics call the government’s chronic negligence. Rather than address that failure, Tebboune opened by crediting the army, firefighters, and Algerian youth for their patriotism. His remarks implicitly acknowledge that ordinary citizens, not state resources, had been left to fight the flames with buckets and bare hands.
On aerial firefighting capacity, Tebboune touted a jump from just two small planes in 2020 to 21 aircraft he claims are now active against fires, though these are reportedly army helicopters rather than the water-bomber Canadair planes Algeria still lacks.
He also pointed to footage of a state utility worker restoring power amid the flames, calling it a scene that could only happen in Algeria, an apparent attempt to paper over the nationwide blackout that hit the country’s 16 largest provinces in mid-July.
The most jarring moment came when Tebboune addressed the popular unrest shaking Tunisia, triggered by power cuts and evolving into broader anger at President Kaïs Saïed’s government.
Framing the protests as a security threat rather than a legitimate expression of public discontent, Tebboune accused unnamed actors of using terrorism to destabilize Tunisia and vowed Algeria would not tolerate it, before lapsing into vulgar language saying anyone who brings terrorism to Tunisia would see their parent’s home demolished.
The remark, widely seen as paternalistic and demeaning to a sovereign neighbor with its own army, sparked backlash on Tunisian social media.
Tebboune’s appetite for big, unverified figures continued elsewhere. He projected non-hydrocarbon exports reaching $30 billion annually by 2029-2030, despite never surpassing roughly $7 billion in seven years in office. He also claimed Algeria ranks second globally in seawater desalination, a claim that ignores the United States, UAE, Kuwait, China and others ahead of Algeria, reviving a widely mocked figure he first cited at the UN General Assembly in 2023.
On foreign policy, Tebboune avoided any mention of the Sahara issue, brushed past the Morocco-Nigeria gas pipeline while denying Algeria needs Nigerian gas, and denied ever requesting visa quotas from France, despite a controversy sparked by France’s ambassador in Algiers over a proposed 250,000 visas.
