Giuseppe Gagliano on the website of the Higher Education School #IASSP wrote an interesting article on the situation in Algeria and the effects on Italian interests.
As is known, writes Gagliano, the Algerian members of the Hirak - or movement - took to the streets in July 14 to demonstrate against the current regime and to demand a profound change at the political level. In fact, after the expiration of the political mandate of the interim president Abdelkader # Bensalah which succeeded due to the resignation of Abdelaziz # Bouteflika, the constitutional council, due to lack of candidates, was forced to extend his appointment indefinitely.
The second novelty that emerged from this magmatic situation is certainly the election of the new president of the National Assembly, namely Slimane #Chenine, member of the Islamist parliamentary group # Ennahda-Adala-Bina, a nomination probably desired by the general # Gaïd #Salah head of forces armed.
It is difficult to deny that it is the head of the armed forces who constitutes the strong element of continuity with the old system of power. The current situation in Algeria can also be read as a ruthless power struggle within the various apparatuses that began with the provisional alliance between Saïd Bouteflika, brother of the former president, and General Ahmed Gaïd Salah, an alliance he had allowed to the latter to liquidate General Toufik at the head of 25 years of security services, who in revenge for this political action had decided to ally with Saïd Bouteflika, as confirmed by former general Khaled Nezzar, former Minister of Defense, which claims that Saïd Bouteflika would have proposed that he liquidate General Gaïd Salah.
However, these plots not only did not give the hoped for outcome but strengthened General Gaïd Salah who, at present, holds the reins of both political power and military power in Algeria. It is certainly no coincidence that the Algerian movement has harshly protested against it, asking it to be removed from office.
To fully understand the current situation in Algeria it is necessary to understand the dynamics and the role of both the armed forces and the security services.
According to CIA sources, the Algerian armed forces remain the best trained in all of Africa, an army that responds directly to the president in which he also holds the post of national security minister. And on the other hand, the weight of the maintenance of the armed forces weighs about 5% compared to the national GDP. The distribution of economic resources, however high it is, is the result of the need to pay particular attention both to the threats coming from the south - from Mali and from Niger - and from the east, that is, from Libya. There is no doubt that modernizing the army is a major strategic challenge for a regional leader like Algeria. In addition to the desire to remain head of the continent in this area, Algeria faces major security challenges such as safeguarding its borders and fighting terrorism.
These new geopolitical challenges, associated with the professionalization of his army, require modernization. According to the Global Power Power Report "The Algerian army, large and powerful, works continuously to meet the needs of modernization and management".
According to the International Peace Research Institute of Stockholm (Sipri), the PNA, the Algerian army, is the seventh importer of weapons in the world. He buys his equipment massively from his main partner: #Russia.
In addition to the acquisition of warships and oil tankers, the NPC has ordered 12 SU-34 "Fullback" tactical bombers in Moscow for 27 million dollars each.
However, Algeria wants to achieve this modernization in order to achieve genuine strategic autonomy towards its suppliers.
The stakes are high for Algeria because, besides the conquest of its strategic autonomy, the future of its economic equilibrium is also at stake: at present it is strongly independent of the oil sector and therefore tries to diversify its sources of income. On the other hand, oil represents almost the 30% of its wealth, the 98% of its exports and the 70% of its tax revenues. The drop in the price of crude oil from the 2014 therefore leads Algeria to continue its investment efforts in the military sector.
In this regard, with an annual extraction of 130 billion cubic meters, Algeria is among the top ten countries in the world for natural gas production. A strategic resource that mainly takes the northern route: from the coasts that wind between Morocco and Tunisia start three gas pipelines - one to Sicily and two to Spain - that make of Algiers the third European supplier of natural gas.
Algeria and Italy
As far as our country is concerned, the most important infrastructure is the pipeline Transmed-Enrico Mattei, which after a transit in Tunisia passes under the Mediterranean to arrive in Mazara del Vallo and is able to transport over 30 billion cubic meters a year.
In this geopolitically unstable context, the "defenestration" of Abdelmoumene Ould Kaddour, number one of Sonatrach - the state energy giant - did not prevent #Eni to sign a memorandum to consolidate his relations with Sonatrach.
Regarding the relations between Algeria and Italian military industry, as it is known the 25 last March the Ministry of Defense has concluded an agreement that sees the constitution of a mixed company with the participation of the 49% of the Italian #Leonardo for the assembly of helicopters in the Setif region, with the related training services, and also for export. There is talk of three types of aircraft, intended for different defense sectors.
The Italo-Algerian partnership signed in August 2016 takes concrete shape. On the other hand, in February of this year the Minister of Defense Elisabetta #Trenta had been received in Algiers by the head of the armed forces, General Gaïd Salah.
Moreover, Algeria, according to Sipri (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute), represents the second main buyer of Italian weapon systems in the five-year period 2014-2018 (9,1%).
Returning to the purely military dimension, it is difficult to deny that one of the pillars of national security in Algeria is military intelligence, which gravitates around the DRS (Department of Intelligence and Security) and the DCE (Algerian Counter-Intelligence Directorate) which with his brigades and divisions are engaged in combating the anti-jihadist struggle. The two security services are naturally placed at the top of the armed forces in close contact with the president. Of particular importance is the integrated military command - inherited from France - located between Mali, Algeria, Mauritania and Niger based in Tamanrasset.
As far as territorial air defense is concerned, it has both three regiments equipped with a Russian defense system and four groups dealing with the management of Russian-made S-400 missiles with high range and precision. In the context of public order, Algeria has the national Gendarmerie composed of around 152 thousand men. Basically it is a paramilitary structure made by men who, thanks to their training, can transform it into a real military structure. Next to the Gendarmerie there are 200 thousand units that operate within national security, a sort of urban police that controls foreigners, visitors and above all the populations that live on the outskirts of Algiers.