Algeria: thousands of people in Algiers celebrated Hirak year one

Several thousand people gathered Saturday in the heart of Algiers, the anniversary of the outbreak of "Hirak", the popular protest movement that has been agitating Algeria for a year, an AFP journalist noted.

" We have come to free you!" "," The people want to bring the regime down, "chanted to the Algerian leaders the demonstrators gathered around the Grande Poste, the historic gathering place of the weekly" Hirak "demonstrations in the capital for a year.

Thousands of Algerians celebrated the year 1 of Hirak this Saturday. RAMZI BOUDINA / REUTERS

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"No to military power, civil and non-military status", it was written 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.

Protesters attempted to advance towards the palace of El Mouradia, the seat of the Algerian presidency, but were prevented from doing so by ropes from the riot police who used a water cannon to block them and repel them, noted AFP journalists. Some people were briefly arrested before being released.

Riot police faced the protesters on the first anniversary of the Hirak. RAMZI BOUDINA / REUTERS

Calm then returned and a compact crowd returned to the esplanade of the Grande Poste, shouting the flagship slogan of the 1st anniversary of Hirak: " We did not come to party but we came to get you out." "

The last groups of protesters were dispersed by the police in the late afternoon.

Other marches took place in the provinces. Calls to protest Saturday had been 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.

A woman demonstrated in Algiers, this Saturday, February 22. RAMZI BOUDINA / REUTERS

A year ago, the first Friday of protests

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.

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 twenty years.

But the Hirak, which demands a real “ break with the current institutions ” and refuses that the process be entrusted to the power in place, could not prevent the organization of a presidential election in December and the election of Abdelmadjid Tebboune, former follower of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, despite record abstention (more than 60%).