A failed attempt to throw eggs over the Sahara, results of Debon’s visit to Portugal
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Debon, who was on a two-day official visit to Portugal, had eggs thrown at his car in Lisbon. The Algerian head of state wanted to turn the trip into a diplomatic event to take away Algeria’s favorable position on the Sahara issue, but in the end he took it badly!
Algerians threw eggs at the main car of the Algerian president’s motorcade, where Abdelmadjid Debon was at the exit of Lisbon’s town hall, expressing their anger and condemnation of the military-elected president.
Unable to go to France or Russia, the Algerian head of state backed out of a trip to Portugal, which he wanted to be a boost to cover the failure of his two postponed trips.
“Abdelmadjit Debon went to Portugal in May because he had to go somewhere. It’s very simple,” Algerian journalist Abdou Semmer said in his analysis of the trip.
“He couldn’t go to France,” he said, citing a diplomatic crisis between the two countries following a vote on a European Parliament resolution condemning the situation of human rights and journalists and Paris refusing to budge. The wishes of the Algerian government, based on the plan of the visit, do not want to be a means of “political marketing” to Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
As for Russia, “relations with Moscow have cooled, the former great friendship no longer exists, and Algeria has been dragging Moscow for two years to sign a new strategic partnership agreement, buy weapons and use Russian currency for economic exchange”, the Algerian journalist reckoned.
He also explains that once Algeria withdrew from Russia due to “pressure” from Western powers threatening Russian arms buyers, “(Algeria) is trying to get back to a cold snowball with Paris. Moscow. Russia understood the Algerian regime’s double game”.
With this unexpected visit to Portugal, the Algerian president tried to surprise by taking away the favorable position from Algeria and the Polisario in the Sahara file and trying to “torpedo” the relationship between Morocco and the European countries.
No communication was made regarding this official two-day visit, which was only announced when he boarded the plane in an indication of a discreet visit arranged at the last minute.
The Algerian press explained the motivations behind the Algerian president’s visit to Portugal as trying to isolate Morocco from its regional partners and break the dynamics of support for the Moroccan project in the Sahara.
“President Debon is on a mission to block the maneuvers of the Moroccan regime”, pointed out the Algerian media Echorouq Online, “which will be an opportunity for Algeria to block the path to the Moroccan regime, which aims to attract another European. The country is in a quagmire supporting Rabat’s expansion plans in the Maghreb region, as it has already done with Spain”.
Algerian media argue that Polisario’s positions are aimed at “torpedoing Morocco’s reunification with its former allies on the old continent” and that Algeria is “arming the corruption of the Moroccan regime” (referring to Qatar’s accusations) to power and Portuguese officials.
Except that the Algerian president fails and returns empty-handed. The Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who received Abdelmadjid Tebboune, “a political solution to the problem of the Sahara with the mediation of the United Nations and agreement between the interested parties”, is enough to show that it does not exist. Even less is said about the “right to self-determination” claimed by the Polisario and Algiers in the matter.
The timing for Abdelmadjid Tebboune was poorly chosen, as two weeks ago, Portugal reiterated its support for the Moroccan autonomy initiative presented in 2007, considering it a realistic, serious and credible proposal. According to the joint declaration of the United Nations, under the joint leadership of Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa and Prime Minister Aziz Akannouch, the work of the 14th Luso-Moroccan High Level Meeting in Lisbon has been approved. .
