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Bloomberg
Algeria’s parliament on Tuesday named the head of its upper house as interim president, potentially placing the country’s tumultuous transition in the hands of a man widely seen as cut from the same cloth as the outgoing Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Abdelkader Bensalah’s nomination paves the way for the start of a transitional period after Bouteflika was forced to step down a week ago in the face of mass protests that plunged the Opec member into its deepest political crisis since a civil war in the 1990s.
Algeria’s constitution mandates that power transfer to the Senate head if the president resigns. While Bensalah’s nomination was widely expected, it is almost as unpalatable to the demonstrators as Bouteflika’s remaining in office. Arabiya reported that protests resumed again within minutes of the parliament’s announcement.
Bensalah will take over for a period of 90 days, during which officials are supposed to schedule new presidential elections.
The backlash against the new interim president suggests that Algeria’s road ahead won’t be smooth. While the protests against Bouteflika were initially aimed at ending his 20-year rule, they quickly escalated into an outright rejection of the broader ruling class.