Algérie succession

Policy and politics are at a standstill as Bouteflika lingers on as President, with no solution to the succession

The return of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to Algiers on 16 July after nearly three months of medical treatment in Paris resolved neither the questions about his health nor the future leadership of Algeria. His doctors said he had suffered a transient ischaemic attack, or mini-stroke, on 27 April, but scant news followed. On 21 May, he was moved to the Institution Nationale des Invalides, and on 13 June, the state-controlled ENTV channel broadcast three minutes of heavily-edited footage of an apparently convalescing Bouteflika drinking coffee and chatting with Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal and the Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaïd Salah. The film said nothing about his status, but he appeared frail and the left side of his body was clearly weak.