The forest fires that have ravaged Algeria for several weeks have once again laid bare the regime’s persistent negligence in dealing with disasters that every year inflict heavy material damage and claim human lives. This was clearly the central issue Tebboune wished to dwell upon—not to offer solutions, at a time when Algerians, and indeed the world, have watched in horror as ordinary citizens have been abandoned to battle the flames with their bare hands or with buckets of water, relying on the most rudimentary means—but rather to extinguish public anger with falsehoods.
From the very first question, Tebboune sought to divert attention from the state’s abdication of responsibility by claiming that alongside “the army, the firefighters... Algerian youth” had demonstrated a remarkable degree of “patriotism” in confronting the fires—a reference to the very citizens who were forced to fight the blazes themselves in the absence of the state.
Although the country still lacks adequate aerial firefighting capabilities, the Algerian president attempted to burnish his record by claiming that when he began his first term in 2020, Algeria possessed only two small aircraft capable of fighting fires. He then boasted that 21 firefighting aircraft are now operational, when in reality these are merely army helicopters. There is still no sign of Canadair water bombers. Tebboune claimed he had instructed the Ministry of Defense—which he himself heads by law—to purchase water bombers. Yet despite an annual defense budget of $25 billion, supplemented by another $25 billion in unallocated annual spending, these essential aircraft have still not been acquired. One could almost conclude that such negligence is deliberate on the part of the arsonists in olive-green uniforms.
Ever the propagandist, Tebboune also paused over a still image, with the complicity of one of his interviewers, presented as showing a Sonelgaz employee struggling to restore electricity in the midst of the flames. In an effort to erase memories of the nationwide blackout that plunged the country’s 16 largest wilayas into darkness for several hours during the night of July 14–15, as well as the ongoing wildfire crisis, Tebboune eagerly seized the cue offered to him and declared that this supposedly heroic image “could only be seen in Algeria.”
All these statements regarding the fires reflect the deep anxiety gripping the Algerian regime following the popular protests that have erupted in neighboring Tunisia in recent days. Initially sparked by repeated electricity outages, those demonstrations quickly evolved into broader denunciations of President Kaïs Saied’s rule. They have raised fears in Algiers of a similar contagion, particularly given that Tunisia was the starting point, some fifteen years ago, for unrest that spread across much of the Arab world.
Long accustomed to indirect but unmistakable interference in the affairs of neighboring countries, the Algerian regime once again inserted itself into Tunisia’s internal affairs. Tebboune denounced what he described as “an attempt to destabilize this neighboring country through terrorism.” He added that “Algeria will not allow anyone to bring terrorism into Tunisia or threaten Tunisia through terrorism.” The Algerian president then abandoned any semblance of statesmanship and resorted to language more befitting the gutter than the office he holds: “Anyone who brings terrorism into Tunisia—I will demolish his parents’ house!”
Quite apart from the vulgarity of the Algerian president’s remarks, his intervention effectively reduced Tunisia—a sovereign state with its own armed forces and fully capable of defending itself against threats—to the status of a vassal state. Unsurprisingly, Tebboune’s paternalistic posture triggered widespread outrage against him on Tunisian social media.
Tebboune also addressed another recent tragedy: the fire at the Mohammadia orphanage in Algiers, which claimed the lives of around ten resident children and left many others injured. His response amounted to little more than announcing that he had ordered an investigation into the entire orphanage staff and that sanctions would follow.
Turning to the recent legislative elections, Tebboune acknowledged that the Constitutional Court’s officially declared turnout of 21.24% now constituted “the real figures.” Unwittingly, he thereby clumsily admitted that the 46% turnout attributed to the 2024 presidential election had been massively inflated after initially being estimated at barely 10%. He nevertheless insisted that low voter turnout has no bearing whatsoever on political legitimacy.
“Whether it is 20% or 70%, the turnout rate takes nothing away from the legitimacy of the parliamentary institution that emerged from the July 2 election,” he declared. In doing so, he was responding to numerous seasoned observers who have argued that the steadily declining turnout figures recorded in every election since 2020 expose the glaring legitimacy deficit of the regime currently governing Algeria.
Yet it is widely acknowledged that the regime survives only through sweeping repression and repeated salary “handouts” which, despite coinciding with successive periods of crisis, have still failed to provide a decent standard of living for the overwhelming majority of Algerians. On Monday, Tebboune once again promised to raise the minimum wage and increase pensions.
On foreign affairs, Tebboune spoke about virtually everything except the Sahara issue. He briefly touched on the Morocco-Nigeria gas pipeline without mentioning ECOWAS’s recent declaration backing the Atlantic project. Instead, he casually asserted that “Algeria does not need Nigerian gas” and that its trans-Saharan pipeline project merely aims to benefit Europe and Niger.
Regarding neighboring Mali, Tebboune claimed that “everything is positive.” France, by contrast, was once again targeted over visas. He swore repeatedly that he had “never requested visa quotas from France,” following the uproar sparked by comments from the French ambassador in Algiers, who had mentioned the possibility of 250,000 visas while speaking to a local newspaper. That figure was subsequently denounced in France by Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally, and Bruno Retailleau, leader of Les Républicains, before Emmanuel Macron himself quietly shelved the proposal.
As for the grandiose figures he cannot resist producing, Tebboune once again claimed that Algeria’s non-hydrocarbon exports would reach $30 billion annually by 2029–2030. Yet after seven years in power, he has never managed to push those exports beyond $7 billion a year, the bulk of which still consists of products derived from hydrocarbons.
Tebboune is equally well versed in fictitious international rankings. He asserted that Algeria ranks second in the world for seawater desalination. In reality, the second position after Saudi Arabia belongs to the United States, followed by the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Spain, China, and others. Unless Tebboune is still clinging to the absurd claim of producing 1.3 billion cubic meters of desalinated water per day—a figure he presented at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2023 and which earned him worldwide ridicule.
