Popular legitimacy or historical .. Which wins in the movement of Algeria?

Abdelhakim Hazaqa - Algeria

On Friday, 38 in a row, Algerians marched across the country, refusing to go to the presidential elections scheduled for December 12, before securing conditions for free popular suffrage, in an effort to put an end to what has been described as legitimacy. The historical authority that came to power six decades ago as the "liberation revolution".

Algeria was ruled by a single party from the beginning of independence in July 1962 until the explosion of social and political conditions in the fall of 1988, against the backdrop of the financial crisis that hit the treasury of the country after the collapse of oil prices, and the escalation of the secret political movements of the opposition in all its ideological lines.

The notorious events of 5 October 1988 left more than 500 people dead in protest against unilateralism, and the authorities found themselves forced, in a heated scramble between their reformist and conservative wings, to open the door to pluralism by the birth of the Constitution of 23 February 1989.

However, the experiment quickly reversed by aborting the first pluralist parliamentary elections sweeping the Islamists at the end of 1991.Algeria entered the tunnel of the black decade, until Abdelaziz Bouteflika rose to the presidency in the spring of 1999, where he turned a bleak page from its recent history by launching the epochs of harmony and national reconciliation.

Explosion injured
Bouteflika amended the constitution in November 2008 to continue as president, or so the man and his associates planned for themselves, so they had what they wanted, and the winds of the Arab Spring failed to block his march toward the fourth term in 2014.

But Bouteflika's reinstatement of the ball five years later again with his nomination for a fifth term sparked anger on the Algerian street to come out on Friday, February 22, 2019 "against irreversible historical legitimacy," activists say.

During the 38th Friday of a peaceful movement, the fifth term fell, with the extension disrupted, the president left, some of his aides were imprisoned, and the presidential elections were postponed twice in April and July.

Since its independence, Algeria has ruled eight presidents, all of whom participated in the liberation revolution.

Legitimacy is demise
Abdelmajid Manasra, head of the Algerian Project for Research and Policy Analysis, said that the youth movement has put the post-independence state in front of the question of legitimacy, after it has evaded it with various tricks, including pluralism that does not allow equal opportunities and democracy that does not allow the transfer of power. , Elections that do not make peaceful change.

"The national ideological state, supported by popular sanctification, is based on a revolutionary legitimacy mixed with patriarchy, which gives the rebels the right to inherit power from the occupation without the will of the people and no accountability," he said.

He said in a statement to Al Jazeera Net that this state failed to achieve the aspirations and priorities of generations of independence, especially the last of them, and now can not continue, and no longer have more political ways of renewal, but is a means of demise, but it resists and delays in departure, taking advantage of the lack The maturity of the new state model based on popular constitutional legitimacy.

Will and reasons
On the other hand, Ramzi Saudi, a researcher at the European Institute for Maghreb Studies and Research in Britain, stressed that there is a real will among young Algerians to transform the legitimacy of the conduct of the state from historical to popular fair elections, where serious initiatives of the opposition expressed this new awareness, as clearly reflected in the banners that It has been lifted since 22 February and has been reduced to the slogan "The people make the decision and set the course".

He told Al Jazeera Net that understanding of the causes of this profound societal transformation revolves around three levels. The first is the global context in which the information and communication sites have contributed; this has allowed openness to experiences and easy access to information.

Consequently, the Algerian youth and popular sectors were informed of the successes of many nations in the field of development, thanks to freedoms and the promotion of initiative, creativity and respect for human dignity.

In the regional context, Algerian youth have benefited from the pros and cons of the Arab Spring experiences, creating their own model, he added.

At the local level, Saudi believes that the doses of awareness disseminated by the opposition, with high rates of education, in exchange for the failure of the regime to build the rule of law and achieve development and preserve the dignity of the Algerian; all factors contributed to the consolidation of the awareness that the outcome is borne by the monopoly of power and wealth, based on legitimacy It fell one by one.

He added that the people - and the youth in particular - are no longer convinced of the historical legitimacy of the independence makers, the legitimacy of saving the republic from the Islamists' danger to the coup against the results of the Fund in 1992, the legitimacy of fighting terrorism during the 1990s, and the legitimacy of national reconciliation in the era of Bouteflika, who was forced to resign thanks to the movement of 22 February. /February.

Resolve irrevocably
Regarding the prospects for a peaceful revolution in light of the insistence of the PA on the current electoral process, Manasra said that a large section of young people sees the upcoming presidencies as a continuation of the old state, and that the transition to democracy is delayed, so the candidates are not impressed by the measures taken to organize the elections. The problem of the legitimacy of the president, and does not solve the legitimacy of the state.

He expected that the youth struggle will continue for another period, stressing that it needs a variety of methods, and renewed in the practical formulas, in order to reach the national effort to establish the state of freedoms, citizenship and development, on the values ​​of national authentic and inclusive.

In turn, Saoudi stressed that al-Shabaab decided to shift from fallen legitimacy to popular legitimacy no matter what the outcome of the December 12 elections, and the indicators are in the projects of the movement structure and the transition to coordination in national spaces.