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FM AMEMBASSY ALGIERS
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INFO RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS 6631
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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