Algiers, Algeria– Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune dismissed his prime minister on Saturday, replacing him with a seasoned diplomat, the presidency said.
Tebboune named Ennadir Larbaoui, currently serving as director of the presidential cabinet, to replace Prime Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane.
Before heading Tebboune’s cabinet, Larbaoui was a longstanding diplomat, having served as Algeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations and in multiple ambassador posts.
The nomination of Larbaoui, 74, came just over a year before presidential elections due to be held in December 2024.
Tebboune, 77, has not yet announced whether he will run for a second term.
Benabderrahmane served as prime minister since June 2021.
The reason for his dismissal has not been announced.
But according to the Algerian news website Interlines, “a change in the executive has been in the air for some time”.
Algerian news website TSA said the change came after Tebboune publicly criticized “the management of tensions connected to the availability of foodstuffs, and the implementation of certain presidential decisions”.
The dismissal also comes a month after Tebboune ordered the appointment of a number of new presidential advisors, in another sign of his dissatisfaction with the prime minister’s performance.
The new advisors were charged with “monitoring governmental activities” as well as all “economic, political, institutional and diplomatic questions”.