Comments made by Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Salah were the clearest signal yet that the army was distancing itself from the ailing Bouteflika
Students shout slogans during a protest calling on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to quit, in Algiers, Algeria, on March 19, 2019.Algeria’s army chief said the public had expressed “noble aims” during protests against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and the ruling FLN party withdrew its support for him, in the heaviest blows for the veteran leader since the unrest began.
“FLN fully supports the popular protest movement,” the APS state news agency quoted FLN leader Moad Bouchared as saying.“There is a need to work devoutly and advocate unified dialogue,” Bouchared added, according to APS. The president has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke five years ago, and the protesters say a shadowy circle of aides, including his powerful younger brother Said, have been ruling the country in his name.In 2016, he dissolved the long-standing military spy directorate known as the DRS, creating a new agency under the control of the presidency in another step to ease the military out of politics, security sources said.
A possible role for Islamists in any future government is one of the issues that could divide the public and potentially provoke the military. But that looks less likely to succeed now with so many allies withdrawing support. The Ennahar online news site, which is close to Bouteflika, has suggested that the president would step down once his current term ends on April 28.
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