In the case of Bouteflika’s resignation, the Algerian military has played a decisive role. The army relies on the will of the people. Critics fear that they could face a democratic renewal.
Tuesday evening, a quarter before eight: Algeria, said goodbye to an Era – the news of the resignation of President Bouteflika goes through the media. For almost 20 years he had ruled the country for a long time with huge self-confidence. “I am not come to put me on a chair, but to fulfil a task,” he had declared, a few weeks after he took office. But that was only for the first Phase of his reign – when he in September 1999, a “Civil Agreement” will be organized, which put an end to the civil war should drag a stroke that had, in the opinion of his critics, mainly cosmetic effect. After all, the violence abated in the following years.
In the end, but its political effect was. For years, he had not shown to the Public and no speeches longer be held. Not even at the end of his tenure, he taught the word to the Algerian people. From the political scene, he went as silently as he had there endured.
The powerlessness of the President
More than one Enduring it was, rather, an escape into a Fortress, no longer able to protect him in the end. His withdrawal will go back to the pressure of the military, says Ahmed Azimi, spokesman for the opposition party, the “vanguard of freedom”, in an interview with Deutsche Welle. In fact, the General chief of staff Ahmed Gaid Salah had accelerated the resignation of the President, at least, as he explain in the past week, suggested that Bouteflika for health reasons, for amtsunfähig. This would have happened, would have Bouteflika need to be disposed of.
The President and the General: Abdelaziz Bouteflika (l) and Ahmed Gaid Salah (R)
The army says Ahmed Azimi, had not acted from a pure will to Power. “The army chief has only responded to the demands of the people. For weeks, millions of people took to the streets and called on Bouteflika to resign. All knew that he ruled the country de facto.” In its place, its political environment, would have guided the fortunes of Algeria, without being legitimized. The did not want to accept the Algerians longer.
Omnipräsentes Military
With Bouteflika’s resignation, – said the Internet newspaper “Tout sur L’algérie”, a specific Aesthetic of the Power to the end of that was from the times of the founder of the state Houari Boumediène. In his public speeches, Bouteflika did an impersonation of the legendary President. How Boumediène he, too, sat in the car behind his driver, but next to him. Also he had worn in his public appearances, always in dark clothes, in order to give a tough Image. The time of the harsh and arbitrary ruler is likely to go in Algeria to an end, says Ahmed Azimi.
However, the fact that Bouteflika’s term in office was under pressure from the military to the end of the concerned political analysts. The military was in the entire state, writes the Algerian sociologist Lahouari Addi, the author of several books on social change in the North African country. “It has infiltrated all government institutions, to ensure that officials from the unwritten rule of the Algerian political system in question. The army is the only power source.” Just as they have infiltrated the opposition parties to weaken them from the inside.
The Power of the military
The Power of the military has evolved over the years. Since then, she said, in 1988, the parliamentary elections – the fundamentalist “Islamic salvation front” as the strongest power was to be null and void, directing the army, the fortunes of the country. “Formally, they explained, not to the source of political Power,” writes Lahouari Addi. “But everyone knows that she’s the one that appoints the President.”
A prelude to dark times: Algiers, after the protests against the cancellation of the elections in 1988
Therefore, the fact that the military have urged Bouteflika to resign does not mean, necessarily, that the problems of the country, particularly the weak economy and high unemployment, would be solved. On the contrary, The military have tolerated the privileges of the political class over the years – including that of the Bouteflika clan. Under the rule of this clan have increased the abuse of power. “He had a voracious and booty-making-money bourgeoisie to arise, and drew from the public funds, and the children of the generals access to the national import business gave.”
“The people decide”: a Demonstration after the resignation of Bouteflika’s in Acts, 2. April 2019
“We accept nothing as clean elections”
That is why it is now important to seek to organize a politically clean Transition, the opposition politician Ahmed Azimi in the DW-interview. “All of the protest movement, the groups involved have agreed to accept anything other than clean and fair elections. No one should be able to affect neither the national administration of the national military.”
The military, Lahouari Addi, ‘ve created in the past years, systematically, to depoliticize the population. Judging from the demonstrations of the past weeks, he managed to do that. The Algerians, who have seen their political hopes during the past decades, so often disappointed, once more to prosper into the future – apparently, determined this Time to implement.