Dean of Ambassadors excluded, Dean of Consuls overthrown by President Bouteflika

Last movement that was carried out by President Bouteflika in the diplomatic corps excluded the Dean of Algerian ambassadors and Algeria ambassador to Tunisia, Abdelkader Hadjar, while it toppled the Dean of Consular Affairs and the General Consul in Marseilles, Abdelhamid Saidi, who stayed in this position for more than two decades.

Basic law of the workers in the diplomatic and consular corps provided that the duration of the task abroad should not exceed four years, on the grounds of realizing justice between the users of this corps and the empowerment of workers in the central administration of their right to work abroad, offering privileges.

It seems that the provisions of the Basic Law have not been observed in the last movement, because many of the ambassadors, consuls and general consuls are still in their posts abroad and have not been summoned, although they exceeded a period of four years.

At the forefront of them there is the dean of Algerian ambassadors, Abdelkader Hadjar, who serves as ambassador without interruption since the arrival of President Bouteflika to the Mouradia Palace.

In 2000, he was appointed Ambassador to Iran, then ambassador to Egypt and Permanent Representative to the Arab League in 2004, then ambassador in Tunis, in January 2012, and before that he worked for many years as ambassador to both Syria and Libya.

There is also the ambassador of Algeria to Kingdom of Morocco, Ahmed Ben Yamina (he was appointed in 2010), and Ambassador of Algeria to Croatia, who is within the ambassadors who are concerned with the reform movement, because they exceeded the legal period, but they were excluded from the movement.

Foreign Ministry’s General Secretary, Abdelhamid Senoussi Briksi, has in turn, made the exception, because he exceeded the age of seventy, however, he succeeded Rachid Marif at the Embassy of Algeria, in Italy.

Premier event in this reform movement remains the overthrow of the Dean of the Consular activity, Abdelhamid Saidi, former General Consular in Marseille, who remained steadfast in his position for 22 years, as he is the man who has a strong relationship with a very person who was referred to retirement a few weeks ago, to replace the former General Consul of Lille consulate (the far north-east France).

It seemed through tracking the rest of the reform movement’s chapters that the relationships and favoritism played a major role in summoning, appointing and transferring some general consuls, as the wife of a minister in the former government of Sellal was appointed in the consulate of Strasbourg, northeast France, and the General Consulate of Nantes (southwest France) was transferred to Besançon (eastern France), who was supposed to be return to the central administration, before things changed in ten days.