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Abdelaziz Bouteflika, presented here in 2009, helped foster peace in Algeria after a decade of civil war in the 1990s. By FAYEZ NURELDINE (AFP / File)
Algerian leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika has retained power for about 20 years, but the veteran of the struggle for independence seems to have finally lost his grip on mbad demonstrations.
His presidency, the longest in the history of the North African state, survived the uprisings of the Arab Spring that overthrew other leaders of the region.
But on Tuesday, after weeks of demonstrations against his government and a request from the army to initiate a dismissal procedure, Bouteflika has bent to pressure and submitted his resignation, the media said. .
It was Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term earlier this year that angered the public and dragged hundreds of thousands of people into the streets of the country, demanding his resignation.
Dubbed Boutef by Algerians, he helped foster peace after a decade of civil war in the North African country in the 1990s, killing nearly 200,000 people.
"I am all Algeria, I am the incarnation of the Algerian people," he said in 1999, the year of his presidency.
Bouteflika has had health problems in recent years. In 2013, a stroke affected his mobility and speech. Since then, he uses a wheelchair. He is rarely seen or heard in public.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika, represented here in 1973, served as Algerian Foreign Minister for over a decade. By – (AFP / File) He has also been criticized by human rights groups and opponents who accuse him of being authoritarian.
When Bouteflika came to power with the support of an army fighting Islamist guerrillas, no one expected him to remain in office for so long.
After his election, he addressed the critics who saw him as another puppet of the army, stating, "I am not three quarters of a president."
Paradoxically, it was only after his stroke that Bouteflika was able to consolidate his power in a country where ghost intelligence services have long been considered a "state in the state".
Long period in exile
Bouteflika was born in Morocco on March 2, 1937 in a family of western Algeria.
At the age of 19, he joined the National Liberation Front (FLN) in his fight against the French colonial rulers.
Independently, in 1962, he was appointed Minister of Sport and Tourism at the age of 25, under the first president of Algeria, Ahmed Ben Bella.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika voted on 16 September 1999 in Algiers. By HAMID (AFP / File) He became Minister of Foreign Affairs the following year, a position he held for more than ten years, but he was put aside after the death of President Houari Boumediene in 1978 and his Is exiled by himself.
While he was abroad, the army-backed government overturned the 1991 elections, which an Islamist party was about to win, causing a decade of bleeding.
Bouteflika returned from Switzerland in 1999 to run for president with the support of the army which gave him a potential figure of reconciliation.
He had first competed against six rivals, but when his opponents pulled back screaming, they found themselves alone.
He proposed an amnesty for the rebels who laid down their arms and twice won the public endorsement of "national reconciliation" by referendum.
The first, in September 1999, was an important but profitable bet, leading to a sharp decrease in violence that propelled Bouteflika to a second term in 2004.
His third term in 2009 followed a constitutional amendment allowing him to represent himself.
His supporters argue that under his administration, public and private investments have created millions of jobs and have significantly reduced unemployment.
Fidel Castro and Abdelaziz Bouteflika attend a ceremony in Havana, Cuba, on April 15, 2000, during the official visit of the Algerian president. By ADALBERTO ROQUE (AFP / File) But the lack of opportunities continues to push many Algerians abroad, with the youth unemployment rate remaining high.
When the Arab Spring broke out in January 2011, Bouteflika overcame the crisis by lifting the emergency state for 19 years and using oil revenues to grant wage increases.
For political commentator Rashid Tlemcani, Bouteflika "should have left office at the end of his second term, after ensuring national reconciliation and winning the hearts of a large part of the population".
Wheelchair vote
In April 2013, Bouteflika was rushed to hospital in France after his stroke and spent three months recovering.
He had already been hospitalized in Paris in 2005 for intestinal problems that he had never fully recovered.
Bouteflika's decision to run for a fourth term in 2014, after 15 years in office, has both been derisive and critical of those who question his ability to govern.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika is pushed into a wheelchair next to his nephew before voting in a polling station in Algiers while he was running in the election on April 17, 2014. By FAROUK BATICHE (AFP / File) He did not even campaign and voted from a wheelchair, but nevertheless won 81% of the vote.
But it is Bouteflika's candidacy for a fifth term in the elections that were to be held in April that was the last straw for many Algerians.
His candidacy was officially presented on March 3 while he was in Switzerland for what the presidency described as a new series of routine medical tests.
On March 10, he returned home and, the next day, retired from the race and canceled the election.
The initial relief of the protesters turned to anger when he confirmed that he would remain in power after the end of his tenure.
They went back to the streets in the hundreds of thousands to push him away and a series of key allies began to abandon the president.
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