Algeria's army chief of staff, Ahmed Gaïd Salah, reaffirmed on Wednesday (July 10th) the support of the military institution to President Abdelkader Bensalah, whose interim should have ended on Tuesday according to the Constitution. but who remains at the head of the state in the absence of presidential elections.

"The last message of the Head of State" is a "sensible and sensible approach" to "get the country out of crisis," said General Gaïd Salah in a speech delivered at an official ceremony and transcribed by the Ministry of the defense. "As much as we encourage and support its content, we see it as one of the important steps to take in the appropriate resolution of this crisis."

As such, he reiterated the army's desire to hold a presidential election "as soon as possible, through the adoption of the national dialogue path".

Abdelkader Bensalah proposes a "dialogue"

In a speech to the Nation, on 3 July, Abdelkader Bensalah proposed a "dialogue" to prepare the presidential election in which neither the political authorities nor the army would be implicated.

This proposal did not calm the protesters, who again marched the next day in the major cities of the country for a 20th consecutive Friday, demanding the departure of all former faithful of the deposed President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. It took place six days before Abdelkader Bensalah's supposed end of the interim period, at the end of the 90 days since his appointment.

>> See also: The genesis of the hymn of the Algerian protesters "La Casa del Mouradia"

The former president of the Senate has, however, been de facto extended to this post, for an indefinite period, due to the cancellation of the presidential election scheduled for July 4: no candidate was selected for this vote rejected by the challenge.

Since the forced resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika on April 2 under the pressure of the street and the army, it is however General Gaïd Salah who has become the strongman of the country.

Ahmed Gaïd Salah warns

In his speech on Wednesday, he explicitly warned those seeking to make believe that Algeria is not - or more - a "civil state", in reference to one of the protesters' slogans.

"False slogans, (...) as claiming a civil and non-military state", constitute "poisoned ideas (...) dictated by circles hostile to Algeria and its institutions," argued Ahmed Gaïd Salah .

"All the efforts that the military institution has made so far are efforts that essentially respect the supreme interest of the homeland," he added.

As such, the army considers that the next presidential will be "the first constitutional and legal fruit" to bring "solutions" to "problems" of the country, he noted.

General Gaïd Salah has, moreover, sent a "serious warning" to those who carry out campaigns aimed at "calling into question any action undertaken by the military institution" to resolve the crisis.

In the morning, about 200 people observed a sit-in before the Algiers Appeal Court in support of the protesters incarcerated for brandishing the Berber emblem, banned by Mr. Gaid Salah, and Lakhdar Bourega, a famous veteran. of the war of independence locked June 30 for including "undermining the morale of the troops," according to an AFP photographer.

The protesters included t-shirts bearing the inscription "liberate Bouregaâ", whose application for release was examined by the indictment division.

More than 30 protesters are currently imprisoned in Algiers for violating the prohibition of the Amazigh cultural flag (Berber) in the demonstrations.

With AFP