In a meeting with national media, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune tackled key domestic and foreign issues. From Pope Leo XIV’s recent Algeria visit to Mali’s turmoil or the UAE’s OPEC withdrawal, the head of state also covered the July 2 legislative elections and economic files like imports.
On the papal trip, Tebboune viewed it as shattering a myth pushed by the former colonizer. “His Holiness delivered no special message. He holds full, exact knowledge of Algeria’s realities. He ended the old occupier’s myth claiming it invented Algeria. He publicly stated Algeria’s history dates back to Saint Augustine and earlier,” the president declared.
For context, a past French president ignited major diplomatic strain by telling students Algeria wasn’t a nation before 1830 and France created it—echoing extremists nostalgic for French Algeria.
This blunder remains a roadblock in the memory dossier, as France struggles to resolve it by denying Algerian demands for colonial military and civil archives, nuclear and chemical test records, repatriation of Algerian resistance fighters’ remains and skulls, and return of confiscated national heritage like Emir Abdelkader’s items or the famed Baba Merzoug cannon.
On violence-plagued neighbor Mali, Tebboune said: “I speak from the heart because we love Mali.” Algeria has consistently upheld its diplomatic constants in the Malian case: rejecting all terrorism, clinging to national unity, defending sovereignty, and opposing foreign interference.
This approach highlights Algeria’s historic mediation role in the Malian crisis, bridging conflict parties. The 2015 Algiers Accord—a major diplomatic reference—restored some stability, especially in the north, until Bamako’s junta, seizing power via two coups in 2020 and 2021, unilaterally scrapped it.
Addressing the UAE’s OPEC exit decision, the president called it a “non-event,” adding that “the Arab nation forming OPEC’s core pillar is sister Saudi Arabia. Period.”
On the coming legislative polls, Tebboune assured parties and hopefuls of transparent proceedings. “I strictly ban any administrative interference in elections’ core,” he stated, while inviting women to claim political space “not because they are women, but because they have ideas.”
On imports, corruption, and economic scams, Tebboune regretted Algeria ridding itself of an “over-invoicing gang” only to face an “under-invoicing gang.”