President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in France for medical check-up

The President of the Republic, Mr. Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Monday flew to Grenoble, in France, for a private visit during which he will undergo periodic medical check-ups, the Presidency of the Republic announced in a statement.

“His Excellency Mr Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of the Republic, left Algiers on Monday, 7 November 2016, for a private visit to Grenoble, France, during which he will undergo periodic medical tests,” the statement said.

A regional French newspaper ‘Le Dauphiné Libéré’ reported to this effect that “President Bouteflika who arrived at around 5 p.m at the Grenoble clinic, the workplace of his personal physician Professor Jack Monsegu a specialist in heart disease, will be staying there for several days.”

President Bouteflika’s medical trip to France came just one day after the head of state received in Algiers former Algerian foreign minister and seasoned diplomat, Lakhdar Brahimi, with whom he tackled a set of topical national and regional issues.

The last travel of the President of the Republic abroad for medical check-ups came by the end of last April, when he went to Geneva, Switzerland to undergo medical tests for five days.

After suffering a stroke in April 2013, President Bouteflika was taken to the Val De Grasse military hospital in Paris for treatment and has since then undergone periodic check-ups in French and Swiss clinics, according to previous statements for the Presidency.

This new therapeutic trip overseas of President Bouteflika coincided with calls by several parties and national personalities to see him standing again as candidate for a fifth straight mandate at the helm of Algeria in the next 2019 presidential polls.

In a hopeful note, the newly-appointed FLN Party Secretary General, Djamel Ould Abbas, declared of late that the health condition of the President of the Republic has shown a clear improvement over the recent period, and predicted that he will stand on his feet and walk in a few months.

This sanguine statement came in conjunction with the intensification by President Bouteflika of his activities and his field visits during the past weeks.

In this respect, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika went on the first of November 2016, on the occasion of the anniversary of the outbreak of the glorious Algerian revolution, to the the martyrs’ square at the Alia cemetery, east of Algiers, to pay a warm tribute to the lofty Martyrs who laid down their lives for Algeria’s freedom and independence.

President Bouteflika has also made several appearances in public over the last few weeks, by inaugurating a conference hall used for a recent OPEC meeting and a brand-new Opera house, and visiting the nearly-completed building site of the future grand Mosque of Algiers.

President Bouteflika also received over the past weeks a number of foreign Ambassadors who presented to him their credentials as newly-appointed Ambassadors accredited in Algeria. This task was previously entrusted for a certain period of time to the minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, Mr. Ramtane Lamamra