Several thousand people gathered in the heart of Algiers on Saturday, the anniversary of the outbreak of the "Hirak" literally "the movement". This unprecedented popular protest has been stirring Algeria for a year.
Around the Grande Poste, a place for the historic gathering of demonstrations, a police device is deployed similar to that found on Fridays, days of weekly demonstrations in the capital for a year, but unusual on Saturdays.
VIDEO. #Algiers, dozens of people demonstrate to celebrate the 1st anniversary of #hirak pic.twitter.com/9WP2uYdep7
- TSA Algeria (@TSAlgerie) February 22, 2020"Civil and non-military status"
"We have come to free you!" "," The people want to bring the regime down, "chanted to the Algerian leaders the demonstrators gathered in front of the building, without the police intervening.
"No to military power, civil and non-military status", it is inscribed on a large banner, in reference to the authority exercised in an opaque manner by the military high command over civil power since the independence of the country in 1962.
Calls to demonstrate on Saturday were launched on social networks to celebrate the first anniversary of this protest movement, which continues week after week to demand the total change of the "system" in power.
On Friday, the 53rd consecutive weekly demonstration drew a huge crowd on the streets of Algiers and in many other cities of the country, scathingly denying the recent words of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, elected in December, who said that "things begin to subside "on the street.
On February 22, 2019, Algerians, perceived as resigned and depoliticized, descended en masse in the streets of big cities, especially in Algiers where all demonstrations are prohibited, to oppose the announced will of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, deeply diminished by illness, to run for a 5th term.
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Six weeks of increasingly massive demonstrations forced on April 2 the high command of the army, pillar of the regime, to demand and obtain the resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in power for 20 years.
Break "with current institutions"
But the Hirak, which demands a real "break with the current institutions" and refuses that the process be entrusted to the power in place. Opponents could not prevent, as was the case twice the organization of a presidential election in December, after two other failed attempts. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, former loyalist of Bouteflika, was elected with record abstention at the call of Hirak. Its legitimacy is questionable and disputed.
Outside the country, Algerians from Europe but also from North America, gathered in the Free Algeria collective, were mobilized on February 22. In Paris, a procession marches from Place de la République to Stalingrad.
Paris: Citizen March for Democracy and Respect for Rights in Algeria from Place de la Republique to Place Stalingrad pic.twitter.com/dri9usz3GI
- Berbère Télévision (@BerbereTV) October 6, 2019Demonstrations will also take place in the United States and Canada. Since the beginning of the movement, this diaspora movement "calls on all of the country's living forces to converge to complete the democratic transition" and found the rule of law.
The collective also demands "the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience", the freedom of the press and the freedom to demonstrate peacefully.
A D-02 of 02/22/2020: For
- The release of prisoners of conscience
- Respect for freedom of the press
- Respect for individual and collective rights
- The right to organize freely and peacefully.
This is why the #Hirak 🇩🇿 must continue .. # Free_Algeria # Algeria pic.twitter.com/F52YltZFVd