Algerian President Abelmadjid Tebboune appeared on public television today for the first time since October 15, when he isolated himself for having tested positive for the new coronavirus, then traveling to Germany for treatment of covid-19.
Visibly thinner, the 75-year-old head of state delivered a “speech to the people” on the occasion of the first anniversary of his election, which was celebrated on Saturday.
The last time he had appeared in public was on 15 October, when he met with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
On 30 November, the presidency announced that the President had left a specialized medical center in Germany, whose name was never released, and that he would return to Algeria in the following days.
Abelmadjid Tebboune, whose speech was released on Twitter and broadcast on public television, said he would be recovering “still one, two or three weeks”.
“I am recovering. It will still take one, two or three weeks to regain my strength, ”he said.
The absence of the Algerian President recalls the long absences of his predecessor, Abdelaziz Bouteflika (1999-2019), for treatments in France in 2013 and, later, for medical examinations in Switzerland, episodes surrounded by much speculation and little information about his whereabouts or Cheers.