Bouguerra Soltani: “The intrusive Administration hampers President Bouteflika's political reforms”

The leader of the Movement for the Society of Peace (MSP) , Mr Bouguerra Soltani, has blamed the intrusive Administration for the failure of the political reforms initiated by the President of the Republic Mr Abdellaziz Bouteflika.

• “The food security, peace and social stability cannot be achieved in Algeria by money, and lesser than that by provisional solutions”, Bouguerra Soltani told Echorouk on the sidelines of a press conference he held earlier this week in the eastern city of Annaba under the theme: “The social aspect of reforms in Algeria“.
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• Echorouk: Would you expound to us what you mean by social development starting from the notion of social welfare?
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• Mr Bouguerra Soltani: The social welfare policy set up by the government for several years now has not yielded positive results despite the earmarking of significant financial packages to this effect.
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• Up to now, food security and social peace have remained elusive. A case in point, the baskets of Ramadhan whose number is increasing every year by leaps and bounds have not curtailed the large pockets of poverty in Algeria.
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• Echorouk: Does the social development you are referring to have any link with the reforms initiated by the President of the Republic Mr Abdellaziz Bouteflika?
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• Mr Bouguerra Soltani: As a matter of fact, the objective of any reform is to promote and to upgrade the living conditions on the social front.
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• Such reforms are also aimed at involving all the segments of the society towards the fulfillment of the national development process.
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• Here in our country, we have ascertained that there is a genuine political will spearheaded by President Bouteflika to guarantee the success of the ongoing reforms.
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• Unfortunately, there is a creeping “administrative will” geared at bringing about the failure of these political reforms for unavowed reasons.
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• Certain draft laws are running counter to the political reforms called for by the head of state with particular reference to the revamping of the communal code.
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• Echorouk: Certain circles consider that your presence within the three-party presidential Alliance is in contradiction with your perception of the ongoing political reforms in Algeria. What is your comment on this point?
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• Mr Bouguerra Soltani: This is true at present. When the MSP accepted in 2004 to join the Presidential Alliance, this came about after reaching a consensual agreement on 2 key points.
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• The first one concerned the return to the civil concord policy and the steady promotion of social peace in the country.
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• Secondly, we focused on the imperious necessity as part of our agreement of maintaining Algeria‘s full support for the Palestinian cause.
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• As time went by, the Presidential Alliance has withered and has become fragile today and I personally thought to withdraw from it  but the MSP “Madjliss Echoura”, (the Party’s Consultative body) has recently decided otherwise.
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•  Actually, the current Presidential Alliance is now just “a political umbrella” designed only to endorse projects.
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