Boualem Sansal: Under the Yoke of the Algerian Authoritarian Regime
The arrest of writer Boualem Sansal at Algiers airport on November 16 is far from an isolated incident. It is part of a long tradition of violent and systematic repression by the Algerian regime, which, under the pretext of ensuring national security, suppresses any dissenting voice and any form of freedom of expression. Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s regime, like its predecessors, imposes insidious terror, silencing intellectuals, journalists, and citizens engaged in the fight for freedom.
Sansal, a leading figure in Algeria’s intellectual resistance, dared to denounce the toxic alliance between the army and Islamism, as well as the corruption that corrodes the political system. His writings, such as “2084: The End of the World,” have made him the designated enemy of this mafioso regime. The writer has continuously highlighted the authoritarian drift poisoning Algeria, and his voice has become a symbol of protest against a regime that is blind and deaf to the suffering of its people.
Algeria, claiming to be a democracy in reconstruction, is in fact an iron state where fundamental freedoms are trampled. The arrest of Boualem Sansal once again illustrates the regime’s inability to tolerate any deviation from its ideological line. This is not the first time that intellectuals or journalists have been silenced. In 2022, the closure of independent media offices such as Radio M and Maghreb Émergent showed that press freedom is an illusion in the country.
The repression carried out by Tebboune’s regime is much more than a simple authoritarian policy; it is a systematic strategy to maintain control over power. Fear is omnipresent, and any criticism, however minor, is seen as an act of betrayal. This authoritarian drift, well known to international authorities, is largely tolerated by foreign governments, including France, which continues to maintain diplomatic relations with a regime that feeds on injustice and the suffering of its people.
The military power in Algeria has turned the nation into a giant prison, where any form of dissent is reduced to a crime. Boualem Sansal, through his writings and positions, embodies the resistance against this system that seeks to keep Algeria in obscurantism. The regime fears not only writers, but any form of critical thought, and it is this fear that fuels its violence.
Algeria’s support for the Polisario, which serves to divert attention from the country’s internal problems, is another example of the opacity of this regime. By trying to present itself as a defender of a foreign cause, the regime attempts to cover up its own shortcomings and maintain control by manipulating the masses. Boualem Sansal has denounced this blind support, emphasizing that the Algerian people suffer much more from the internal abuses of power than from regional conflicts.
By arresting Sansal, the Algerian authorities did not just want to punish a writer, they wanted to send a clear message: any form of free thought is a threat. In a country where fear of power is cultivated as a weapon, there is no place for critical thinking. This regime has made repression its modus operandi, and those who, like Sansal, dare to oppose it suffer the consequences.