Le Monde: The challenges beyond Bouteflika

French newspaper Le Monde described Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika as "the peacemaker who made Algeria a great oil producer and became the embodiment of a hated regime, after a 20-year rule that destroyed every attempt by the opposition."

In the video of Charlotte Bezonier, deputy editor of the Africa section of the newspaper, Bouteflika said that as soon as he took office in 1999, putting an end to the civil war was a priority and imposing conditions for peace on the Algerians without reconciliation.

At the moment of the oil boom, at which prices reached the highest levels in a country such as Algeria based on the rent economy, Bouteflika benefited from the revolution and plunged the presidency into corruption and tyranny.

This video - which deals with his reign and the challenges ahead - talks about the rise of Bouteflika with the support of the army, which was engaged in a war with the Islamists and then killed about 150 thousand people, according to the journalist.

She also said that Bouteflika offered two of them immediately after assuming office in 1999 and provides amnesty for all Islamists who did not commit murder. The second was in 2005, extending the amnesty to the security forces, and the people agreed to them and thus ended the civil war in the end.

Peace without reconciliation
Bouteflika, as the peacemaker, has benefited greatly from this bloody period, which prevents the two texts from raising their subject, leaving some issues as disappeared. Some people describe what Bouteflika has done as "peace without reconciliation".

The newspaper said Bouteflika's rise to power was accompanied by an unprecedented rise in oil prices, which represents a quarter of the GDP and 95 percent of its exports, throwing a huge fortune in the president's stone, splitting up on large and expensive jobs such as roads, housing, hospitals and basic food subsidies.

But this great wealth no longer exists, not because of these achievements, which are already significant and important because the sums hidden are much more than their value, but because of the corruption that also characterized the period of Bouteflika's rule, according to the journalist.

Fast superfluous richness
The press quoted this corruption as the presence of men from the President's vicinity, which had a terrible and rapid impact. A number of users and business people formed around it, according to them, who stole the country's wealth.

In addition to the rampant corruption, Bouteflika left political life devastated by the repression and divisions that almost wiped out the political parties that became unknown, and which made many people avoid entering the political arena, posing the problem of advancing the task after the recent protests.

The challenges are great
In the first phase, after the president steps down, the problems will focus on the transitional period, which gives the texts to the president's constitutional successor, the speaker of the National Assembly, Abdelkader Ben Saleh, who is known for his loyalty to Bouteflika, an integral part of the regime.

This man, according to the journalist, is responsible for overseeing presidential elections for no more than 90 days. "It is necessary to say here that the Algerian people will not accept the supervision of Ben Saleh and the Prime Minister, who is the interior minister of the former regime, Noureddine Badawi." There is a call to form a new national unity government.

These are the challenges in the near future, in addition to the current conflict between the army and the protesters in the street, especially since no one confuses what the military wants and what the street wants.

In a far-off perspective, the challenges are greater, because there is a country that needs to be fully rebuilt, whether at the economic level in the trap of dependence on oil or a policy that has been completely emptied of its content when people no longer trust the ballot box and no longer have political leaders.

The journalist concludes that this "political destruction" that Algeria has experienced in twenty years must rebuild trust between Algerians and their representatives for the establishment of the state.