• Abdelaziz Bouteflika, ex-Algerian president died this Friday.

  • He had held this post for 20 years, before being ousted from power in 2019 when he was greatly diminished physically after his stroke in 2013 and hardly appeared in public anymore.

  • In Marseille, the Algerian diaspora at the time of the assessment evokes above all an immense mess, between resentment and indifference.

"May he rest in peace, he is dead that's all".

Laconic, the reaction of Zied, who arrived in France in 1952, illustrates the ambient feeling of Marseillais of Algerian origin after the announcement of the death of former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Reactions tinged with indifference for a past that everyone would like to see over.

But when it comes to the political record of the former president forced to resign in 2019 by the army after numerous demonstrations, opinions are more consistent.

"It's a part of history that goes away, even so it hurts"

At Sunday coffee time, in the working-class district of Noailles, on the terrace with Zied, Bouzid Chaabane, a 53-year-old worker, partially clears the deceased from five presidential terms marred by corruption, embezzlement and personal enrichment . "It's a part of the story that goes away, even so it hurts." He is especially angry with "the entourage" of the former president, greatly reduced since his cardiovascular accident in 2013. "It is not he who asked for a fifth term," he defends. “It's his clan”.

At the neighboring tea room, Abou Gigel, who arrived in France 10 years ago, is more severe with this one.

"It was he who destroyed Algeria," blurted this 45-year-old construction worker, describing a country stiffened by a political class quicker to serve their personal interests than that of the citizens.

“And the new government is the same.

It is the army which holds the country, the political personnel change, but not the regime, ”he regrets, looking with one eye at the Algerian non-stop news channel running in the café.

The event of death is soberly mentioned there, which annoys all the same a little "uncle", the chibani of coffee.

"Young people need to know who he was."

"With all the oil money, there was enough to do 10 countries like Qatar"

A little further down the neighborhood, Edinne, a 65-year-old trader, rewinds.

“At first I admired him, but he screwed up in his 4th and 5th terms and with his clan he got his pockets full, leaving the people on their own and bringing the country to the ground.

However, with all the oil money, there was enough to do 10 countries like Qatar, ”he exaggerates.

Imane, seated with him, gives the change.

"He still put an end to the civil war, built highways, he is the only one who has done things for the country," he opposes.

"If Bouteflika had retired at the end of the third term, he would be celebrated as a hero"

"If Bouteflika had retired at the end of the third term, he would be celebrated as a hero", considers Edinne.

Instead, Algeria observes a discreet mourning, without with the half-masting of the flags for three days and a burial in the square of the martyrs of the cemetery of El Alia in Algiers.

A funeral far from the national tributes of his predecessors.

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Death of Abdelaziz Bouteflika: the former president buried with fewer honors than his predecessors

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Algeria: ex-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika died at the age of 84

  • Algeria

  • Abdelaziz bouteflika

  • Marseilles