The long-standing chief of Algeria’s ruling FLN party Amar Saadani has resigned just weeks after making accusations that a retired spy chief and a former prime minister had been French agents.
Saadani, a close ally of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has often been critical of opponents, but analysts said he crossed a line when he openly criticised veterans of the independence war against France.
Algeria is mostly still run by a generation of older politicians involved in the war of independence against France, including Bouteflika. And the FLN or Front de Liberation Nationale has dominated Algeria’s politics since independence in 1962.
“I am resigning because of health problems,” Saadani told FLN members during a meeting on Saturday, which was broadcast on local television.
Djamel Ould Abes, 82, a doctor and close Bouteflika associate, has been appointed new FLN chief.
In remarks earlier this month during an FLN meeting, Saadani had accused Mohamed Mediene, former chief of the military spy directorate known as the DRS, and former premier Abdelaziz Belkhadem, a personal advisor to the president, of working as French agents in the past.
Mediene, who was rarely seen in public during his time as DRS chief, has made no statement in response. But Belkhadem dismissed the allegations in comments to local media.
“He can ask people in my village what I did during the war of independence,” he said. “Everyone can ask what my family did during the war.”
Mediene was forced into retirement earlier this year as part of Bouteflika’s campaign to curb DRS political influence.
Saadani’s departure comes as the FLN prepares for legislative elections in 2017.
“The FLN, whose real boss is Bouteflika, wanted to make sure militants follow his instructions in the upcoming local elections,” one senior FLN member told Reuters. “It sounds that Saadani had started to become autonomous.”