Algeria gambles on old captain to chart new waters
The announcement that Algeria’s ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is running for a fifth term in the country’s elections raised questions about Algerians’ readiness to endorse the man who has played a prominent role in ending the civil war.
TUNIS, Tunisia — The Feb. 10 announcement that 81-year-old Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika would seek a fifth term in office has confirmed and confounded expectations in equal measure.
Few would deny that the incumbent’s health is poor. Since suffering from a devastating stroke in 2013, he has rarely appeared in public. Rumors of ill health are rife. In 2017, the abrupt cancellation of a diplomatic visit by Angela Merkel was enough to spark rumors of the president’s death.
However, after nearly two decades in power, the announcement of Bouteflika’s fifth bid for the presidency provides further evidence of the Algerian leadership’s unwavering commitment to safeguarding the country’s stability. Faced with the potentially destabilizing conflict between maintaining a generous subsidy package at home and falling hydrocarbon prices and shifting market tastes abroad, it is not yet clear how well equipped Algiers’ entrenched status quo may be to navigate the stormy weather ahead.
“There is a deep wariness of instability within Algeria,” professor Jonathan Hill, director of the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at King’s College, told Al-Monitor. “There’s also a deep awareness of the presence of the security services within the country and what they could do in the case of any major upheaval,” Hill said.
