HIBAPRESS – Youssef Aqdhad
Months ago, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune did not hesitate to describe the writer Boualem Sansal with harsh words, calling him "the found thief of unknown identity and unknown father," simply because he stated in a press interview that areas of western Algeria were historically part of Morocco.
That description was not merely a political outburst, but an embodiment of an authoritarian approach that opposes free thought and considers any dissenting opinion a betrayal, even if it comes from a thinker who cares about the nation from a critical angle. Today, the scene has turned upside down. The same president who insulted the writer with the harshest terms is the same one who signed a pardon decision for him after an order from German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. A stark contradiction that summarizes the fragility of political decisions in Algeria and confirms that the regime does not move according to a principle or conviction, but under the pressure of Western capitals, which it is supposed to "stand against" in the name of sovereignty. This paradox exposes the dual discourse of the Algerian regime, which claims strength and independence in its media speeches, while actually submitting to external dictates when its diplomatic interests are touched. The pardon was not a decision stemming from internal reconciliation or intellectual review, but an obligatory step to appease an influential European partner, showing that the authorities in Algeria deal with human rights issues with a selective logic that distinguishes between "external humanity" and "internal repression." In reality, it seems that those who run the affairs of the Algerian state today are not real institutions or a mature political mind, but a system that resembles in its behavior improvised gangs that make their decisions based on emotion and reaction, not on vision and planning. Instead of the state being a framework for rationality and sovereignty, it has turned into an entity that acts impulsively, attacking one day and apologizing the next, condemning the outside in speech and submitting to it in reality. And sometimes, the regime's actions seem to come from a childish political logic that does not understand the consequences of its decisions, and stumbles between slogans and reality. In the end, the case of Boualem Sansal reveals that Algeria is led by the logic of reaction, not initiative, and with a mentality that weakens in the face of any external pressure, so slogans are exposed and the image of the alleged “regional power” collapses in the face of the first test of real sovereignty.
