Algeria’s support for the Polisario is a survival strategy for the Algerian military regime, which remains a dominant actor in the country’s politics. This support is not simply a matter of solidarity with the Sahrawi population in the Tindouf camps or an ideologically selfless stance, but rather a pragmatic choice by the regime to maintain its power and influence in a complex geopolitical environment.
Algeria faces regional internal independence demands, notably in Kabylie to the north and, to the south, with the Tuaregs and the Sahrawi Algerians. According to experts, support for the Polisario, a poisoned legacy of Boumediene and the former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, is a way for the Algerian regime to show that it remains faithful to its core principles, justifying its power in a country where opposition and criticism of its internal management are constant.
In the same context, beyond the ideological pretext, support for the Polisario serves to distract the Algerian public from internal issues. Led today by General Saïd Chengriha, head of the ANP, and his so-called president Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Algeria faces numerous socio-economic challenges: high unemployment, corruption, poor management of natural resources (oil and gas), poverty, and a locked political system. The Sahrawi issue is used to obscure internal problems by focusing public debate on an external issue.
The Algerian military, which remains the central institution of power, uses this foreign policy as a « tool of social control, » maintaining a sense of « national unity » around a common enemy and invoking a cause that resonates with Algeria’s deep national values, such as decolonization. This reinforces the image of the military as the protector of national integrity and sovereignty, while masking the internal weaknesses of the regime.
However, the Algerian regime pretends to ignore the new geopolitical reality: the United States, France, Spain, Germany, Arab countries, Gulf monarchies, and the majority of African and Asian countries have already resolved the outdated issue of Western Sahara. In the coming months, the Polisario is expected to be added to the list of terrorist organizations by the United Nations, alongside groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iranian militias.