{"id":62806,"date":"2020-02-21T15:28:43","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T07:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=62806"},"modified":"2020-02-21T15:28:45","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T07:28:45","slug":"algerians-to-mobilise-to-mark-protest-movements-first-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=62806","title":{"rendered":"Algerians to mobilise to mark protest movement\u2019s first birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Image<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ALGIERS, Feb 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Algeria this weekend marks a year since the birth of an unprecedented protest movement known as \u201cHirak\u201d \u2014 one that quickly forced an ailing president from power and is now looking to maintain momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anti-government protesters and groups have designated Friday and Saturday a landmark moment, mobilising to \u201cdisqualify the system\u2019s agenda of self-renewal, and to lay the foundations for a new republic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protests first erupted on Feb 22 last year, in response to President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika announcing he intended a run for a fifth term \u2014 despite being debilitated by a 2013 stroke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less than six weeks later, he stepped down after losing the support of the
then-army chief in the face of enormous weekly demonstrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But despite hordes \u2014 diplomats said \u201cmillions\u201d \u2014 turning out after
Bouteflika\u2019s fall to demand an overhaul of the entire system, the military
maintained a political stranglehold in the months that followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But many boycotted the poll \u2014 even the official turnout was below 40
percent \u2014 and demonstrators remain numerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSoldiers have returned to their barracks, civilians are in power, so there
is a democratic and constitutional facade\u201d exactly as before, said Dalia
Ghanem, a researcher at the Carnegie Middle East Center based in Beirut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTebboune is just the civilian face of a government that remains in the hands of the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protest movement, meanwhile, has plenty of rethinking ahead, if it is
to maintain momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But whatever the challenges ahead, Hirak has already forced change on
Algeria\u2019s political order, in a context where real opposition was
consistently hindered, gagged and co-opted during Bouteflika\u2019s two decades at the helm. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALGIERS, Feb 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Algeria this weekend marks a year since the birth of an unprecedented protest movement known as \u201cHirak\u201d \u2014 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 \u201cdisqualify the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62806"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}