ALGIERS, Feb 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Algeria this weekend marks a year since the birth of an unprecedented protest movement known as “Hirak” — one that quickly forced an ailing president from power and is now looking to maintain momentum.
Anti-government protesters and groups have designated Friday and Saturday a landmark moment, mobilising to “disqualify the system’s agenda of self-renewal, and to lay the foundations for a new republic.”
Protests first erupted on Feb 22 last year, in response to President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika announcing he intended a run for a fifth term — despite being debilitated by a 2013 stroke.
Less than six weeks later, he stepped down after losing the support of the
then-army chief in the face of enormous weekly demonstrations.
But despite hordes — diplomats said “millions” — turning out after
Bouteflika’s fall to demand an overhaul of the entire system, the military
maintained a political stranglehold in the months that followed.
The election of Abdelmadjid Tebboune, once a prime minister under
Bouteflika, as president in December appears to have reinforced the government’s hand and further stalled the protest movement.
But many boycotted the poll — even the official turnout was below 40
percent — and demonstrators remain numerous.
“Soldiers have returned to their barracks, civilians are in power, so there
is a democratic and constitutional facade” exactly as before, said Dalia
Ghanem, a researcher at the Carnegie Middle East Center based in Beirut.
“Tebboune is just the civilian face of a government that remains in the hands of the military.”
The protest movement, meanwhile, has plenty of rethinking ahead, if it is
to maintain momentum.
The size of marches across the country on Friday and Saturday will
represent a key test of the spontaneous, leaderless and youth-dominated anti-government campaign.
But whatever the challenges ahead, Hirak has already forced change on
Algeria’s political order, in a context where real opposition was
consistently hindered, gagged and co-opted during Bouteflika’s two decades at the helm. — NNN-AGENCIES
