Algeria: after a year of protests, the Hirak struggles to envisage the future

Text by: Leïla Beratto Follow

On February 22, 2019, Algerians demonstrated across the country to denounce Abdelaziz Bouteflika's fifth term project. A year later, from Annaba to Oran, they wonder about the continuation of the protest movement, while the new president Abdelmadjid Tebboune does not seem to convince.

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From our correspondent,

Flag tied around their shoulders, a group of young men take up a song by football supporters that they have adapted to the news of the week. In the historic center of Annaba, men and women parade, cell phones brandished to film. The city, the fourth largest in the country, close to the Tunisian border, has not stopped demonstrating, since the start of the Algerian protest movement on February 22, 2019. A year ago, the inhabitants of the city, like elsewhere in the country, chanted " No to the fifth term " and " FLN clears ". Today they are asking for a change in the political system.

This Friday, February 21, for " the anniversary of the Hirak ", Mourad Ghoualmi may return to demonstrate, he who has stopped since the election of Abdelmadjid Tebboune. " I am in favor of leaving him to work for a few months and seeing, " explains this former manager of a public company. His wife, Nacera Ghoualmi, a university teacher, disagrees: “ Even if the number of people has decreased, we cannot afford to stop asking for this system to disappear. The only way we have for the moment is to demonstrate peacefully ”.

► Read also : Mobilization on the rise in Algiers, a year after the start of the Hirak

"Translate the slogans"

" For the moment, nothing has really changed ," says Amel Nouaouria Bouharis, management consultant. We know that if we go home, it's like we haven't done anything . ” She also resents foreign countries, including France, which " do not like Hirak ". She lists the economic interests in the region and the partnerships “ which are not win-win ”. But she recognizes that something is going on in society. In Annaba, the protests created links between residents and sparked citizen initiatives. " You learn to be a citizen ," sums up Amel Nouaouria Bouharis, who believes that there is still work. Today, we have to translate the slogans, ask people how they see the new Algeria . ”

Demonstration of February 21, 2020, in Algiers. RFI / Leïla Beratto

At 300 kilometers to the east, in the very commercial city of Setif, a group of young film fans have translated their claims by deeds, "When the system is denounced, practices were denounced, explains Salim Frahtia the spokesperson for the collective “Un cinema pour Sétif”. We therefore asked for the reopening of the city's cinemas, which have been closed for thirty years. One of the rooms has been renovated twice with taxpayer money. The seats are new but it remains closed ! "

The collective is shooting a short film, staging a city actor, Samir El Hakim, and surrounding himself with young volunteers to present the petition to the inhabitants. " In one afternoon, we collected more than two thousand signatures and two weeks later, the cultural center accepted that the screenings of the film clubs could be done on its premises, " he added. The members of the collective refuse to speak of victory. " It's just a fair return of things ." But they laugh and wonder " why haven't they done it before ?" "

" The future is not clear "

The characteristic of this protest movement, unprecedented since the country's independence in 1962, is its peaceful character, but also the fact that it remained very horizontal. After a year, even if personalities seem to have emerged in certain regions, neither the existing opposition political parties nor the civil society organizations have succeeded in putting an end to the distrust of the Algerians and in building themselves as an alternative. " It was the only opportunity since 1962 to federate around a common project, but they were not able to do it, " laments Selim, 42, an architect in Oran, the second city of the country.

Her friend Wiam, 30, adds: " They are not ready to enlarge their base in reality, to open up to others ". The young woman worries: “ Maybe we should appoint spokespersons. Because there are no discussions. They continue to impose their vision. We continue to walk. But after a while, we will get tired ”. One year after the start of the protest, the debate is fierce: should we structure ourselves? How? 'Or' What ? With whom ? And above all, will the government let it go?

Dahbia, 31, a teacher of architecture at Mostaganem summarizes: "For now, we have not the courage to build a political party from scratch and is not party that suits us. The future is not clear ”.

► Also read : Algeria: one year after its debut, the victories and challenges of the Hirak

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• Algeria
• Abdelaziz Bouteflika
• Abdelmadjid Tebboune

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