Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Saturday appointed educator and diplomat Abdelaziz Djerad as the country’s new prime minister and asked him to form the country’s next government to handle political unrest and a looming economic challenge, the presidency announced in a statement, reported Reuters.
The 65-year-old Djerad had served in the administration of a previous president in the 1990s. He held posts including general secretary of the presidency from 1993-1995 and the same role at the foreign ministry from 2001-2003.
Djerad was among the ones who backed the mass protests and demanded that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and his allies quit power. He also vowed to work to win back people’s trust after months of street protests. The mass protests forced Bouteflika to finally resign in April after two decades in office.
In his first public statement, Djerad said the top task for the new government is to “win back the confidence of the people.” He stressed the need to work together to meet all the social-economic challenges and pull the country out of the distress period.
Algeria is still facing protests demanding a complete political overhaul. The 10-month-old protest movement has rejected Tebboune’s appointment as the president as they claim he is part of the same corrupt system that has ruled since independence in 1962.
Tebboune was declared the winner of the presidential election held earlier this month. He won with 58.1 percent of the vote on a turnout of less than 40 percent. He was sworn in on December 19, just a few days before Algeria’s powerful Army Chief Ahmed Gaid Salah, died suddenly of a heart attack at age 79. Salah had become the de facto strongman in the country after Bouteflika quit.
On Friday tens of thousands of Algerians came out on the streets to reiterate their call for a total revamp of the political establishment.
