French-Algerian relations on the brink: a country in turmoil
The failure to mellow Algerian-French relations has only tightened the noose around the neck of a masochistic regime that finds pleasure in being flogged from all sides without seeking a single moment of respite.
With the disappearance of its instrument of destabilization in the North African region, the Polisario, on the horizon, and forced to accept American mediation to clarify the causes of its inexplicable crisis with its Moroccan neighbor, the Algiers regime finds itself diplomatically surrounded and isolated on the international stage. Wading through unprecedented tension with France and attracting the wrath of its southern neighbor, Mali, which has not hesitated to file a complaint with the UN Security Council for aggression. Ignored by the Arabian Gulf states, all aligned with Morocco, and rejected by Russia, the traditional strategic ally, the Algerian regime continues its headlong rush without a single moment’s thought about correcting its course or pausing to reflect on what is happening to it.
In the grip of an acute crisis of conspiracy from which they will never recover, the residents of El-Mouradia (seat of the Presidency of the Republic) and the Tagarins (seat of the Ministry of National Defense) have found nothing but to call for general mobilization. We are in the midst of a serf-like delirium. Between the price of imported Eid lamb and the olive harvest, the subject of the agenda for its meeting on Sunday, April 20, the Council of Ministers, chaired by Abdelmadjid Tebboune, approved the draft law on general mobilization, which aims to “define the provisions related to the modalities of organization, preparation, and implementation of the general mobilization, as provided for in Article 99 of the Constitution.”
And as if to confirm this feverish and panicky atmosphere, within the regime, a meeting of the High Security Council was held to announce the general mobilization of a population with which it has been at odds since the Tebboune/Chengriha duo took power of the country. How dare anyone even think of mobilizing a population that is despised, repressed, starved, robbed, and deprived of the basics of freedom? This is the population that Tebboune refuses to meet, and when he does, under duress, he does so under the protection of a swarm of heavily armed bodyguards, supported by helicopters in the sky and tanks on the ground. If the Algerian leadership intends to impose a state of emergency paralyzing any protest or political opposition through general mobilization, it has long been done. No law is needed to silence those who have already been silenced.
If this is to retaliate against Washington, which has announced its intention to put things right by putting an end to Algiers’ belligerent policy in the North African region, it must be recognized that times have changed and that Algeria is no longer the respectable and formidable state it once was. This call for general mobilization is rather aimed at promoting local consumption, to distract the population from the perennial shortages of basic necessities and the misery that suffocates a people living on an oil slick and on empty stomachs.
This people no longer believe in illusions and false promises, the latest of which is the increase in the tourist allowance to 750 euros, whereas for several decades it had been 90 euros. An increase postponed indefinitely due to the latest drop in oil prices. And to think that Morocco, its oil-free neighbor, increased the tourist allowance from 7,000 to 10,000 euros two years ago. Tunisia, in the midst of an economic crisis for several years, has maintained this allowance at 4,000 euros, and Mauritania at 7,000 euros. Only Algerians from a country rich in oil, gas, phosphate, iron, manganese, and so on, are considered the poor relations of all the populations of the Maghreb with their miserable 90 euros per year. Otherwise, they can simply resort to money laundering, legalized by the government without the need for a bill. Everything is tacit in Algeria, including the open currency trafficking and money laundering. This is normal, you might say.
In a country where everything is false, from the results of the fake election to this conference organized in Algiers to denounce fake news. A conference called the “Regional Workshop of the Liaison Office for North Africa of the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA).” A North Africa of which Morocco is an integral part, but superbly ignored by the organizers, just as French, the second language spoken in the region, is ignored in favor of English, which the majority of participants only speak mumbled at best. But isn’t this also the resurfacing spirit of belligerence? Resentment, when you hold us!
Hichem ABOUD
