The repression of the last embers of the Hirak revolt (movement, in Arabic) in Algeria—the outbreak of which has now been five years—has thrown dozens of opponents and dissidents behind bars, according to Amnesty in its latest report. . While the opaque Maghreb country has witnessed a rare opening to the world in recent days on the occasion of a summit of gas-exporting states, the regime showed signs of having consolidated since 2019. President Abdelmayid Tebún, who at 78 years of age is to face his permanence in power in the elections scheduled for December, he has acted as host to leaders and rulers of countries such as Iran, Russia or Venezuela, without having yet confirmed his candidacy for re-election.
Five years ago, massive popular protests prevented the re-election for a fifth term of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was seriously ill and absent from public life. A citizen tide expanded throughout Algeria in favor of a rule of law and against the corruption established in two decades of presidency without alternation. Starting on February 22, 2019, the population spontaneously and peacefully took to the streets every week to reject the perpetuation of Bouteflika in power, who withdrew his candidacy two months later.
The mobilization continued, this time in favor of a “free and democratic Algeria” and for “a civil, non-military State.” The pandemic interrupted the mobilizations the following year, and when they resumed, in 2021, they were repressed through systematic harassment of parties and organizations linked to the Hirak. under the accusation of “attacking institutions.”
“Algeria hopes to have free, democratic elections this year with real possibilities of alternation,” explains former minister and diplomat Abdelaziz Rahabi, 70, in his private office in Algiers. “But today there is no favorable political climate for transparent elections because of restrictions on freedom of expression,” he warns. “The activity of the parties is very limited, as is that of the media.”
“It is a tragedy that, five years after the Algerian population took to the streets en masse to demand reforms and political change, the authorities have continued their deterrent campaign of repression,” says Heba Morayef, Amnesty ‘s regional director for the East. Middle and North Africa. She also demands “the immediate and unconditional freedom of dozens of people detained for exercising their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.” For three years, it has been necessary to obtain prior notification in order to call a demonstration.
The protective State model, which distributes the benefits of oil and gas among the population, implemented in Algeria since independence from France in 1962, has been reinforced by the rise in the prices of hydrocarbon gas exports after the war in Ukraine . “It is not a model that works,” points out Rahabi, who was his country’s ambassador to Spain and worked during the Hirak revolt. in the coordination between the different organizations that made up the movement.
“The increase in energy income has been offset by the cost of raw materials such as wheat or medicine imports. Everything has become expensive, not just gas,” he emphasizes. “The peaceful protests did not receive support from Western democracies and raised fear among Arab authoritarian regimes,” Rahabi recalls with a hint of regret.
Algeria is approaching 50 million inhabitants, according to recent demographic projections, and, although agriculture has expanded in the last two decades, it needs to import half of the food it consumes, as in the case of cereals. “We are not afraid of demographic growth, because the country is big,” says the former Algerian minister. “Right now labor is needed in the Sahara regions.”
Alternative candidate
Despite the silence imposed by those in power and the speculation in the French and Moroccan press, which casts doubt on President Tebún’s re-election, in Algeria political actors are beginning to take positions. The jurist Zubida Assul, 68, leader of the center-left party Union for Change and Progress, has been the first candidate to announce an alternative candidacy for the presidency against the hegemony of Tebún, backed by the Armed Forces and the apparatus of the State. Assul, who has defended detainees for “crimes of opinion” by the Hirak and who advocated the creation of a common political front of the opposition forces that participated in the protest movement, has seen how the powerful public media They ignored his political announcement last Friday.
Rahabi himself also tried to lead an initiative that would bring together the currents in favor of alternation around the Hirak, both those that had a parliamentary presence and that of the groups that emerged from the street. Almost the entire opposition, including Assul’s party, boycotted the 2021 legislative elections and gave the sword to Parliament. “Stability was privileged over change, which is why the Algeria of today is not far from that of 2019,” laments the former minister and diplomat. “The main demands remain the same: freedom, justice, the fight against corruption and control over public wealth from gas and oil,” he adds.
On the eve of the energy summit that has wreaked havoc in the rain in the traffic jam of the capital of Algeria – where a liter of gasoline does not exceed 30 euro cents – President Tebún has inaugurated the Great Mosque of Algiers. The temple, built a decade ago by a Chinese company, will open to worship for Ramadan prayers, which begin in a week. Considered the largest in Africa and one of the largest in the Islamic world, the new mosque stands facing the sea surrounded by highways, and symbolizes with its 265-meter-high minaret the rise of the Maghreb country due to the bonanza derived from the gas manna. and oil. Its official opening occurs when political veterans like Rahabi, born in the middle of the war for independence, confirm the “regression suffered in recent years in Algeria in terms of individual and collective freedoms and freedom of expression.”
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