Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune appointed his chief of staff, Nadir Larbaoui, 74, to serve as prime minister on Saturday, November 11. This career diplomat, former ambassador to the United Nations, replaces Aymen Benabderrahmane “whose functions have been terminated”, according to the terms of the press release from the Presidency of the Republic.
Very self-effacing, without real power and without charisma, Aymen Benabderrahmane, in office since June 2021, has long been the subject of thinly veiled criticism from the head of state. Abdelmadjid Tebboune blamed him for the country’s difficulties, such as the shortage of certain food products.
This change of prime minister is therefore not a surprise, especially as it comes a little more than a month after a reorganization of the presidential services.
Nine advisers, whose missions seem to duplicate those of the government, have been appointed. They are responsible in particular for “following and participating in the implementation of the program, orientations and decisions of the President of the Republic and reporting to him”, ensuring the “monitoring of economic affairs, government activities and political and institutional issues, and to report on their developments”, as well as “to inform the President of the Republic on the political, economic, social and cultural situation of the country, its evolution and to provide him with the necessary elements to decision making”.
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The decree relating to this reorganization may well specify that the presidential services “are not intended to replace the competent institutions and administrations, nor to interfere in the exercise of their responsibilities”, the measure was perceived by several observers like the establishment of a second government, a sign of a desire to further centralize decision-making almost a year before the presidential election scheduled for December 2024.
One of the key pieces of this system is the former magistrate Boualem Boualem, a friend of the Head of State who was appointed interim chief of staff, and serves as advisor in charge of legal affairs, relations with institutions, investigations and authorizations.
These various changes come as President Abdelmadjid Tebboune appears to be preparing to run for a second term in the 2024 election. The 77-year-old head of state has still not officially announced his candidacy but no political figure has is currently able to compete with him, as long as he maintains the support of the army and leads without a real political opponent, since the start of the repression against Hirak in 2019.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, stressed at the end of his September visit to Algeria that the government must “tackle the climate of fear provoked by a series of criminal charges against individuals, associations, unions and political parties under excessively restrictive laws, including an anti-terrorism law contrary to Algeria’s international rights obligations humans.”