Algeria has bid farewell to its days under president Abdelaziz Bouteflika as
governments
this man led Algeria for almost 20 years
folks his last days they were pretty crazy something like a cross between
fantasy fiction and an ancient myth on the one hand we've got this guy both
flare car who cannot communicate efficiently and he resembles the
decrepit King Theoden from Lord of the Rings a ruler puppeteered by his
advisers on the other ends we've got a kind of Algerian version of El Cid
Campea Dora absolutely incapacitated both flee a car surrounded by his
acolytes who hoped to stick him into a wheelchair and wheel him into his fifth
presidential term but follow the second because maybe you don't know who else it
can Theodore is well talking about the legendary Spanish historical character
that Charlton Heston played in the 1961 movie El Cid your colors are no longer
black until my father is Avenged my colors would be deepest black then leave
a link in the description below to that if you want to read a bit more on the
subject
the fact is that this was the last straw and it kicked off a chain of events both
via car he wouldn't have fifth term but folks to be honest that's the least of
us thinking that there's democracy in our Cheerios sort of like thinking that
Nicolas Maduro won the last elections in Venezuela all fair and square
Venezuela no gracias so leader creo que la democracia mess fully the math
completely man liberated total continent americano Algeria is a democracy in name
but it's not an effective democracy what they do have though is a lot of
questions on the table what has vote leave comments for
Algeria's history what will happen when he leaves and are we about to witness
new chapter of the Arab Spring well today and visual politic we are going to
answer all of these questions but first a bit of history
the origin we only need to take a look at our Giri
as most recent history to understands the enormous power that the army has
always had in this country in the last 60 years Algeria has undergone a
liberation war against the French shake military dictatorship that ran for more
than two decades and a 10-year civil war in other words in the last 60 years the
Algerian army has been a key player in most current affairs and most national
politics but basically if he hadn't resigned April the 27th 2019 would have
marked the 20th anniversary since the army candid overpower to boot fair car
in that time he was considered the consensual president of Algeria two
decades later many people think that this was Algeria's most stable period
and that over those decades it became one of the safest countries in the Arab
world however many analysts think that this is due to stagnation rather than
stability but hold on a second because before we continue I think we should
answer a fundamental question just who is abdul aziz boot flyer car
well depois our protagonist was born eighty-two years ago in under a Moroccan
city near the border with Algeria his parents were Algerians and at the
age of 19 he decided to join the National Liberation Army to fight the
French during the war his career skyrocketed and he soon became part of
Colonel who re booed midians in a circle who was the main head of state that is
how once the country's independence was achieved in 1962 mood Flair car was
already a minister even though he was only 25 years old and shortly after that
when boumedienne himself then Minister of Defense engineered a coup d'etat
taking a step towards the military dictatorship our protagonist played a
very very important role you see who re booed modeun was president of Algeria
until his death in 1978 and the dis side was Butley a car who was Algeria's
foreign minister during the entire dictatorship but of course after but--my
attends death Bouteflika suffered the fate of many people who collaborate or
are a part of a dictatorship he fell into disgrace he was accused of and
condemned of corruption and his public image it was absolutely in tatters so he
moved to Europe of course it didn't take long until he
returned to a very troubled algeria at that time and we're talking about the
end of the 1980s in the beginning of the 1990s here the Algerian revolution it
was trying to leave behind a single-party regime and become an
authentic democracy once and for all it was precisely in this context in 1991
that the first open parliamentary elections were held in the first rounds
the Islamist party won by a landslide the second round it didn't even happen
the army annulled all votes before the Islamists could achieve a sufficient
majority to change the constitution and turn Algeria into a new Iran then
Algeria began a civil war against Islamism the result 200,000 deaths
inside of a decade
labor voir
it was then after the Civil War that Bouteflika is time it really came
see in 1999 the then military presidents Lea means arrow I'll unexpectedly
resigned and called for presidential elections so the army didn't want free
elections they saw a boat for the aircar is the right person to lead Algeria
towards national reconciliation and as it was said so it was done nothing else
was needed and were basically both flicka's government managed to end the
civil war he managed to act with a steady hands even at the worst of
moments and not only that both flare car opens the country's economy to foreign
investments this made it possible for gas and oil revenues to sustain the
government's social policies since then folks Algeria has become a kind of Ron
ta country they took the income from their oil and gas industry for granted
and defended heavily on that money to run the country that large part of the
population quickly became accustomed to subsidies and to the fact that basically
all products were heavily subsidized all of this allowed motorcar to maintain as
popular support without having to take a single step towards the country's
effective democratization we all knew him in the tea Bella
Annabeth
since mode flicka's rise to power that power it was concentrated increasingly
in the presidential palace this became so extreme that political institutions
cease to have any value in practice vote flick ah he was the power the
concentration of power was so great that when the leader suffered a stroke in
2013 nobody could see an alternative there was no plan B all the plans for
our G Ria's future included Butley a car as the country's political leader what
happens is that this stroke led to one of the most surreal scenarios ever seen
in a country's politics but via car was left in a wheelchair practically unable
to speak and completely dependent on others obviously the president couldn't
govern under these conditions however when presidential elections were held in
2014 nobody thought of an alternative even
though the president couldn't even address the population during the entire
election campaign he still won the elections now don't be surprised they
were Algerian democracy is a bit like that the results are determined even
before the votes are cast and so now you might be wondering why I mean if the old
leaders not doing it who exactly is ruling Algeria and this is precisely
where lip of war comes in
see Papua is a French word that means power so the power or the pouvoir as
they say in Algeria is an expression that refers to the elites that have
dominated the Algerian Republic since the country's independence these are
political economic and military elites that have been unable to agree on a new
president for the last six years so yeah you could probably see how Algerian
democracy really works in any case not being able to agree on a candidate
wasn't something that really worried these elites after all they had brutally
Akkar to maintain their privileges and control over the country however this
time they made a mistake
the limit since 2014 the drop in oil and natural gas prices has been a major blow
to the Algerian economy the country's income decreased by 50 percent and don't
forget that more than half of the Algerian budget is financed by
hydrocarbon exports basically the books became so wildly unbalanced that extreme
measures were taken such as this Algeria bans imports of cellphones furniture
food to curb trade deficit and of course in addition to these prohibitions many
other goods were taxed with very high tariffs because of course when our NTA
country loses income well I mean how can they pay the bills and reality is they
can't so those subsidies they have to get cut Algerian lawmakers approved
budget calling for hikes in fuel prices taxes
with the loss of income from the drop in oil and gas prices Algeria's situation
it became critical you see despite the government cutting spending by 10
percent per year the public deficit reached an alarming level 12 percent of
the GDP and of course being unable to finance many of the subsidies that the
government used to distribute the cost of living in Algeria has skyrocketed in
the last five years and I think you could probably now understand the huge
social discontent that's going on in Algeria Algeria soaring food prices fuel
popular resentment
and as if this wasn't enough Algeria is a very young population the average age
is under 30 the combination of a lot of young people and economic stagnation can
be lethal for this type of regime why is that because if a country is starker in
a crisis it can't create opportunities for the young people and they have the
strength and vitality to take to the streets and well that's precisely what
happens for young Algerians there was no other way to end the regime led by the
mummy he has hopefully a car is popularly known they aims to ends a
dictatorial and very corrupt regime that has condemned the country to chronic
stagnation turning it into a country that has had to get used to news like
this east-west highway 5 billion dollars of corruption
that is why when on February the 10th the regime announced Puglia cars
candidacy for a fifth turn in elections that would of course be rigged it was
the straw that broke the camel's back six days later on February the 16th 2019
mobilizations against this candidacy and against the regime again little by
little the protests spread throughout the country which organ about the
biggest mobilization that Algeria has experienced since 1999
and there's incredible success just six weeks after the protests began
bouteflika was forced to resign and leave power but of course this doesn't
mean that the problems are over for Algeria
not at all we still need to see if the elites will accept open elections
without pouting if the opposition can get organized and prepare a solid
candidacy and if the results of this process will actually lead to an
effective political transition meanwhile the country's economy continues to have
many problems to balance the budget the Margrave country needs to set the oil
price at over $99 Styron price on asunder 75 and that's not all you see
one of the country's future challenges is decreasing their dependence on
hydrocarbons but first Algeria needs to liberalize its economy and favor the
arrival of more foreign investment in the hydrocarbon sector in order to avoid
production forecasts from not being met
folks algeria is one of the largest energy producers in africa and it's a
key natural gas supplier to europe but if there's no investments production
will fall and evidently a fall in production due to not having invested
enough would seriously aggravate that country's economic problems here at
visual politic we've already seen this happen in Venezuela for example because
the investments that the oil sector needed they were not made you want to
learn more about that we tell you all about it in this video now algeria is
not venezuelan us obvious but international companies complain about
the tremendous bureaucracy the incredible uncertainty and also all the
corruption that plagues the country as you can see the challenge that algeria
faces in the post vote fear car era is enormous so what will happen to the
country from now on will the country achieve its much-needed political and
economic transition or will the elites of the
bouteflika era maintain their power and control by putting another president
they trust in to lead the country well that remains to be seen and we'll keep
you updated about it in any case in a few years we hope that algeria will
resemble tunisia more than it does egypt so i really hope you enjoyed that video
if you did please do hit that like button and don't forget to subscribe
brand new videos also don't forget to check out our friends at the reconsider
media podcast they provided the vocals in this episode that were not mine also
this channel is possible because of patreon and our patrons on that platform
please consider joining them and supporting our mission of providing
independent political coverage and as always I'll see you next time