Throwing eggs and failure on the Sahara, the results of Tebboune’s visit to Portugal

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was booed and had eggs thrown at his car in Lisbon, during a two-day official visit to Portugal. The Algerian Head of State wanted to make this trip a diplomatic event to snatch a position favorable to Algeria in the Sahara issue, but in the end, he took it badly!

Algerians threw eggs at the main car of the Algerian presidential motorcade where Abdelmadjid Tebboune was at the exit of the town hall of Lisbon, to express their anger and their denunciation of this presidency chosen by the military.

Unpopular in his country and outside his country, the Algerian president who sought to restore his image abroad through this trip to Portugal, was, on the contrary, humiliated once again with this throwing of eggs, very symbolic of the break with the Algerian people and the Algerian diaspora.

The Algerians on the spot chanted pro-Hirak slogans and against the military regime reigning in their country of origin, asking for a civilian regime. “Tebboune mzouer, jabouh l’Aaskar” (Tebbune is a masquerade, it was the soldiers who brought him back), they chanted calling for the release of prisoners of conscience.

Failing to be able to go to France or Russia, the Algerian head of state fell back on this trip to Portugal, which he wanted to be a springboard to hide the failure of his two postponed trips.

“Abdelmadjid Tebboune went to Portugal because he had to go somewhere in May. it’s as simple as that,” said Algerian journalist Abdou Semmar in an analysis of this trip.

“He couldn’t go to France,” he said, referring to the diplomatic crisis between the two countries following the vote on a resolution denouncing the situation of human rights and journalists by the European Parliament and a refusal by Paris to give in to the whims of the Algerian state in terms of the program of the visit, not wanting to be a means of doing “political marketing” for Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

As for Russia, “relations with Moscow have cooled, it is no longer the great friendship that there was before and Algeria has been dragging Moscow for two years for the signing of the new strategic partnership, for the purchase of arms, for the use of Russian currency for economic exchanges”, enumerated the Algerian journalist.

He also explains that as soon as Algeria has distanced itself from Russia because of the “pressing” of Western powers who threaten buyers of Russian arms, and that “as soon as there is a cold snap with Paris , (Algeria) tries to return to Moscow. Russia has understood the double game of the Algerian regime”.

With this unexpected trip to Portugal, the Algerian president sought to create surprise by trying to “torpedo” relations between Morocco and European countries, of which Portugal is a part, by snatching a favorable position from Algeria and the Polisario on the Sahara file.

No communication was made regarding this official two-day visit, it was only announced when he was on board the plane, a sign of a discreet visit, which was organized at the last minute. .

The Algerian press explained the motivations behind this visit of the Algerian president to Portugal, they focus on Morocco to isolate it from its regional partners and attempts to break the dynamics of support for the Moroccan plan in the Sahara.

“President Tebboune is on a mission to stem the maneuvers of the Moroccan regime”, indicated the Algerian media Echorouk online, adding that it “will be an opportunity for Algeria to block the road to the Moroccan regime, which aims to attract a another European country in the quagmire of supporting Rabat’s expansionist plans in the Maghreb region, as it has already done with Spain”.

The Algerian media claims that the aim will be to “torpedo any reunion of Morocco with its former allies on the Old Continent” and that Algeria is “arming itself with the scandals of the Moroccan regime” (in reference to the accusations of Qatargate) to plead the positions of the polisario with the power and Portuguese authorities.

Except that the Algerian president returns empty-handed having failed. The Portuguese President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who received Abdelmadjid Tebboune, spoke of a “political solution to the question of the Sahara with the mediation of the United Nations and the agreement between the interested parties”, enough to show that he it is not about the polisario in this affair and even less about the supposed “right to self-determination” claimed by Algiers.

The timing for Abdelmadjid Tebboune is badly chosen, since two weeks ago, Portugal reiterated its support for the Moroccan autonomy initiative, presented in 2007, which it considers a realistic, serious and credible proposal. with a view to an agreed solution within the framework of the United Nations, according to the Joint Declaration that sanctioned the work of the 14th Luso-Moroccan High-Level Meeting, held in Lisbon, under the joint chairmanship of the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, and of the head of government, Aziz Akhannouch.