BOUTEFLIKA ANNOUNCES MINOR CABINET RESHUFFLE

C O N F I D E N T I A L ALGIERS 000790

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/05/2017
TAGS: PGOV KDEM INRB AG
SUBJECT: BOUTEFLIKA ANNOUNCES MINOR CABINET RESHUFFLE

REF: ALGIERS 330

Classified By: DCM Thomas F. Daughton; reasons 1.4 (b, d)


1. (U) President Bouteflika made minor changes to the cabinet
on June 4 as a culmination of the May 17 national elections
and the May 31 installation of the new parliament. The six
ministerial changes did not live up to public speculation
about a major reshuffle. As was widely expected by the press
and political observers -- and in spite of grumbling within
his own party about the result of the election -- Prime
Minister Belkhadem retained his post. Also as expected,
Foreign Minister Bedjaoui (aged 78) departed the government,
to be replaced by the previous finance minister, Mourad
Medelci. Karim Djoudi, previously minister-delegate for
financial issues, will take Medelci's seat at the cabinet
table. The other new faces in the cabinet are:

-- Abderrachid Boukerzaza, Ministry of Communications;

-- Noureddine Moussa, Ministry of Housing and Urbanism;

-- Hachemi Djiar, Ministry of Youth and Sports;

-- Mahmoud Khedri, Ministry of Relations with Parliament.

(The entire list of Bouteflika's June 4 appointments has been
emailed to NEA/MAG.)

HO-HUM
--------------


2. (C) Up to the day of the announcement, MPs from the
presidential coalition parties were telling us that
Bouteflika would not announce the new cabinet until his
return from the G-8 Summit in Germany. The strong
resemblance of the new cabinet to the old was also apparently
unexpected -- at least by the official government daily
newspaper El Moudjahid, which had lately been replete with
articles on "reform" and Bouteflika's dynamic program.
Unphased by the new cabinet list, El Moudjahid's lead
headline on June 5 described it as "A Government to
Accelerate Reforms."


3. (C) Amara Ben Younes, president of the opposition
Democratic and Republican Union (UDR),told PolEc Chief June
5 that the announcement was disappointing even by the
standards of Algerians who are lukewarm about reform. He
predicted another new government would be formed following
local elections in the fall because the newly named
government had no credibility in advancing reform. Ben
Younes acknowledged that presidential coalition members all
had talking points welcoming the president's move, but
predicted that in a few days the reformers among them would
privately express their disappointment.

CONFIDENCE NOT COMPETENCE
--------------


4. (C) Hamid Lounaouci of the Rally for Culture and Democracy
(RCD),another opposition party, told us there was much
disappointment, even among the coalition parties, in the
naming of Medelci as foreign minister. He joked that
Bouteflika gave Algerians "a man of confidence, not a man of
competence" to look after Algeria's external relations.
Lounaouci said Bouteflika had clearly chosen someone close to
him and in whom he had much confidence, rather than someone
well versed in diplomacy. It was well known that Bouteflika
placed a high premium on loyalty and trust, he observed, and
the president clearly gave those factors the greater weight
in choosing Bedjaoui's successor.


5. (C) BIO NOTE: Medelci's government experience is confined
to the financial realm. He has served as finance minister
since May 2005. In the 1980s, he served as the
second-highest official at the ministry of commerce and the
president of "the shareholders' fund" created in June of

1988. In November 1988, he was named minister of commerce.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Medelci was the financial director of
the National Company for Studies and the director general of
the national tobacco company. He is the married father of
five children and holds an economics degree. Medelci speaks
Arabic and French. He understands some English but does not
speak it.


6. (C) COMMENT: Belkhadem's continued tenure as prime
minister was a setback for former PM Ahmed Ouyahia, who has
behind-the-scenes support (reftel) to succeed Bouteflika as
president. While the ailing Bouteflika could still seek to
amend the constitution and create a vice presidency for
Ouyahia or someone else, he has not even hinted to date that
he is thinking about succession. Indeed, aside from handing
pro-reform Minister of Privatization and Investments
Abdelhamid Temmar added responsibility for the ministry of
industry, Bouteflika did nothing to suggest that an
"acceleration of economic reform" (El Moudjahid's headline
notwithstanding) is high on his agenda. More than anything,
the new cabinet typifies the inertia that has increasingly
mired the Algerian government.
FORD