Algerian reconciliation in the balance

The blues skies promised to Algeria for the past several months by (President) Abdelaziz Bouteflika are decidedly not in sight.

Since the beginning of the month, the forecast has heralded, rather, tempest: An epidemic of murders attributed to Islamic militants who refused to give up their arms. Disaccord between the president and the military hierarchy. Paralysis for the president, who could still not form a new government six months after his election.

(Abdelkader) Hachani was the only political personality from the Islamic Salvation Front with whom the government could have sealed up the national reconciliation.

Hachani's death can only reinforce the already restarted cycle of violence and the retreat of militants back underground. It also marks the end of the state of grace for Bouteflika, who without a doubt overestimated the ease of transforming words into reality.

-- Liberation, Paris