“The last five years have not brought anything new. Since 2019, I have not achieved anything concrete. After our victory in the Africa Cup of Nations (football in July 2019), everything has stagnated,” admits ironically Abdenour Benkherouf, a 20-year-old hairdresser.
Although no official data is available, many young people do not want to vote on Saturday.
The economy, which is growing at a rate of 4% a year, currently making it possible to finance social assistance, remains highly dependent on natural gas exports, the prices of which have skyrocketed since the war in Ukraine.
They formed the bulk of the troops of Hirak pro-democracy protesters who called for a radical change of the political system during the 2019 presidential election, in which abstention reached a record 60 percent.
“In five years, nothing has changed”
Dressed in a Barcelona football club shirt, 19-year-old unemployed Karim Beldjoudi is as disappointed as his hairdresser friend: “Honestly, in five years (of Tebboune's tenure, editor's note), I have not seen none. progress or development in the country, nothing has changed in our situation.”
Speaking clearly to young people, Abdelmadjid Tebboune promised during a pre-election meeting in Oran (west) 450,000 new jobs and an increase from 13,000 to 20,000 dinars (133 euros) in the level of the minimum wage, the allowance monthly unemployment, which created in 2022 for young people aged 19-40.
But for Fouad Brahimi, a 22-year-old painter, young people want “jobs, because this allowance is not sustainable”.
One in three unemployed youth
The economy, which is growing at 4% a year, currently making it possible to finance such social assistance, remains highly dependent on natural gas exports, the prices of which have risen since the war in Ukraine in 2022.
For the young artist, it's just “repetitions in reforms and nothing is really moving forward. We can say that President Tebboune has partially restored the country, but he is only continuing the projects launched before him”.
In Algeria, those under 30 make up more than half of the population, or about 23 million people. However, unemployment affects almost one in three young people, for a national average of around 12%, according to official statistics.
Met outside candidate Tebboune's office, Sami Rahmani, 39, hesitates to speak publicly as some portray him as “a traitor to Hirak” of whom “an active element”. Even though he is unemployed, he declares himself “satisfied” with “the last five years, because the president really made an effort.” “In the coming years, it will do even more and provide support to marginalized young people, because we see young people with degrees but without jobs.”
Every year, thousands of young graduates cannot find a job corresponding to their training. There are many of them in small, precarious jobs in the informal economy: couriers, street vendors, VTC taxis, etc.
Chadli Isshak, a 21-year-old student, believes that the first five-year term “coincided with the Covid-19 period, so Mr. Tebboune was not able to finish the projects he started” even though he “created jobs and reduced debt.
“Two or three years is not enough,” he believes of the start of his Covid-undermined mandate, stressing that Mr. Tebboune “needs more time and we will see if he really keeps his promises.”
The dream of the harga
Interviewed on a hot day in Algiers, Abdenour, a hairdresser, and Karim, an unemployed man, were under no illusions.
They wanted to talk in a cafe belonging to the Union of the Deaf and Dumb in Algiers, saying without mockery: “preferring to be in the company of mutes than people who talk to make a bunch of promises without keeping them.”
Both now have only “one dream: the harga”, the clandestine crossing of the Mediterranean to Europe.