Bouteflika retreats .. Has the Algerian revolution started?

Did Algerians win on Monday, March 11, when President Abdelaziz Bouteflika abandoned his candidacy for a fifth term and announced the postponement of presidential elections?

The French newspaper Liberecienne said that the results of the demonstrations, which began on February 22, showed that it had radically changed the mood of the Algerians who had appeared frustrated by the inevitability of the continuation of Bouteflika's regime.

The newspaper asked again: Can the perseverance of Algerians and their determination to lead to a profound change of order, especially as observers unanimously agreed on the peaceful movement?

The rare joy of the Algerians
The writer of the article, Najib Sidi Moussa of Paris 1 University, described the rare moments of joy in which the Algerian people came out united, and said that the most important came out in November 2009 when the Algerian football team qualified for the World Cup held in South Africa the next year, Men, women and children collectively to celebrate the victory, a departure that has not been seen since July 1962.

No one described this collective feeling of elation witnessed by Algeria, as the writer and journalist Kamel Daoud described it in a column in the daily newspaper Oran, saying: "It suffices to feel that it is another country that carries it in your arms and not on your back. Which we finally saw on the faces of our women after they were liberated. "

The writer considered that the mathematical dimension of the 2009 exit does not contradict a purely political reading of the current events. He chose the February 22, 2019 demonstrations, the December 11, 1960 demonstrations against French colonialism and the October 5, 1988 demonstrations against the military dictatorship.

In November 2009, with the slogan "One, two, three, Algeria lives," he had a far more profound meaning than a simple result of football, because in fact it was a celebration of a national character and an expression of a joyful joy culminating in the end Civil war and the restoration of a temporary possession of public space, says the writer.

He stressed that the 2009 celebrations put an end to the bloody arc that was opened due to the suspension of the electoral process in January 1992 and the state of emergency announced in February 2011, without respect for basic democratic freedoms, such as demonstrations in the capital.

Algeria is not Syria
In order to explain the stability of the regime despite the "Arab Spring" in 2011, it is necessary to mention the scapegoating promoted by the regime to paralyze attempts to protest the spread of fear among people by signaling the return of the "national tragedy" in the 1990s.

The writer pointed out that this scapegoat is the same that the spokesmen of the outgoing president promoted after the unprecedented demonstrations on 22 February, and hit the example of former Minister Amara Ben Younis, who asked the attendees at a meeting in Chlef, "Do you know what we lived in the nineties Who wants to go back to that period? "

He added that Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia also told the deputies the following day: "The citizens have shown the roses to the police, it's beautiful, but I remember that in Syria it started to have flowers too." But fear, he said, has changed since February 22, when the demonstrators responded with the slogan "Algeria is not Syria."

However, during this period - always supported by the current situation that has killed and wounded tens of thousands and displaced people - Algerians have been limited to the role of passive victims, who have been caught between the repression of the state and the atrocities of Islamic groups.

The author referred to calls to re-read this "black decade" away from ideological narratives to better deal with the sensitivity of individuals.

Revolution and any revolution?
The writer said that it became obvious that Algeria's history today was before February 22 and beyond, and the Secretary General of the Labor Party, Louisa Hanoun, believes that Algeria is now in the "pre-revolution" stage, although its invitation to join the movement did not prevent people from criticizing Which they saw as collusion with the authorities in recent years.

The writer stressed that the demonstrations that took place on the first of this March were the most crowded and comprehensive, and felt that they not only indicate the rejection of the demonstrators to the fifth mandate, but also to reject the political system and its staff and organizations, starting with the National Liberation Front.

"Did the spring that we had hoped for in May 2012 come to pass, or is it a precaution to raise the ceiling of optimism?" Asked Najib Sidi Moussa.

Preventing change
In 2014, he concluded that it was "wrong to believe that the revolutions of neighboring countries would have no effect" on Algeria, but the fear of civil war with a "radical alternative" absence "prevented the desired change by the weakest opposition to state repression and collusion with the regime Other times ".

In his article, the writer argued that the strong movement that began on February 22, 2019 is part of the regional and national movements, but on the assumption that it can be described as a "revolution" we must be able to determine its character, especially as all slogans are aligned with the agenda Neo-liberalism.

The writer noted that some wealthy people joined the protest to denounce the administrative obstacles to the activities of the Civital Group. He also hinted at tensions in the Business Leaders Forum, an employers' union that provides unconditional support to the outgoing president.

The social issue is less pressing for the people
On the other hand, the writer pointed out that the social issue hardly appears explicitly in the demands of the demonstrators. However, Abdelaziz Bouteflika promised in his declaration of candidacy "to implement quickly public policies that ensure a more equitable and equitable redistribution of national wealth."

Najib Sidi Moussa wondered if this was a new maneuver aimed at defusing the calls for a general strike and self-regulation as formulated by the Socialist Workers' Party in a statement on February 26, in which the left-wing party supports the holding of a sovereign constituent assembly "representing the democratic and social aspirations of the workers and the masses "He said.

The writer, he says, emerges from the consensus of the rejection of a fifth term, opposing views, as well as Islamists who have not given up defending a social project compatible with neo-liberal capitalism.

The writer concluded that the February 22, 2019 movement had launched a new cycle of popular struggles that never stopped despite the temptations of the government's promises, but it remains to know which sectors of the people want radical change, to take the initiative.