Zubida Assul, candidate to preside over Algeria: “We have not yet had an alternation in power”

Zubida Assul, 67, has taken the first step to present his candidacy for the presidency of Algeria as a representative of civil society against “power”, the military and political complex that has governed the destinies of the Maghreb country since independence in 1962. This former judge and feminist lawyer has launched the first challenge to the current president, Abdelmayid Tebún, who must seek re-election in this year's elections.

To do this, it aims to bring together the opposition forces and the popular movements of the Hirak, which five years ago led a wave of unprecedented peaceful protests to force the resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, when the then head of state was preparing to perpetuate himself in a fifth consecutive term.

As a lawyer, Assul defends dozens of politicians, journalists and intellectuals who have since been prosecuted for their participation in the Algerian democratic movement.

“I hung up my judge's robe and put on that of a lawyer,” she summarizes her political metamorphosis at her party headquarters in Algiers.

“My workhorse is the rule of law, the independence of justice, individual and collective freedoms,” her program emphasizes.

“We cannot have democracy without a strong and independent justice system.”

The first candidate to launch the presidential race participated as a jurist in the Transitional Council, which healed the wounds of the bloody Algerian civil war of the 1990s.

Since 2012 she has led the centrist party Union for Change and Progress (UCP).

Assul remembers that in 2018 he already participated in the creation of a movement to prevent Bouteflika's fifth term.

“But in February 2019, the people took to the streets en masse and amazed the entire world.

Millions of Algerians mobilized to demand freedom of the press, of opinion, of assembly, of movement... All of them are enshrined in our Constitution, but they have no translation on the ground,” he warns.

“The Hirak has been the most relevant historical moment for Algeria since independence,” he says about a central point of his candidacy.

Considers that the Algerian Constitution also enshrines equality for women, as full citizens.

“The State favored the education of girls.

Today there are 50% of female judges, and more than 60% of the lawyers are women.

The same thing happens in health or education," he says, "but this parity does not occur in politics, where there are only four female ministers among 29 portfolios, and 25% of parliamentarians, even lower than the 32% in the elections of 2012″.

“We have gone backwards since five years ago.

“We are witnessing a tightening of all freedoms,” he questions about the current Government.

“There have been many criminal proceedings against intellectuals, journalists, politicians.

We Algerians have the right to criticize those in power, to disagree with their approaches.”

He sees further evidence of this setback in the press conference at which he announced his candidacy, which received barely any media coverage.

“Journalists are not free to practice their profession in Algeria,” he says.

“62 years have passed since independence and there has not yet been an alternation in power through the polls,” he justifies his proposal to agree on an opposition candidacy.

For the presidential candidate, the presidential elections could be the opportunity to once again mobilize those who participated in the Hirak.

“We have to convince them that the strategy of boycotting the elections benefits the system more than the citizens,” she emphasizes.

The term of the current head of state expires in December of this year.

“Since the 1989 crisis, many opposition political parties have sometimes participated in elections and other times boycotted them.

We have not yet had a political transition in Algeria.

That is the problem,” says Assul.

-Do you propose a national reconciliation around the Hirak?

―The crisis in Algeria is a political crisis.

There can be no solution without dialogue, through a social pact between institutions and citizens.

The attempts that have been made by those in power have not given the expected results.

-If you were president, would you release all prisoners for crimes of opinion?

―The first thing I will do if I become President of the Republic is to start a dialogue to reconcile the Algerians.

Secondly, obviously, I will ensure that all freedoms are respected.

If I am president, I will not accept that a citizen is imprisoned for expressing his point of view, even if he harshly criticizes me.

-Are you going to count on the Armed Forces?

―Historically, the National Liberation Army was on the front lines of ending more than 130 years of colonialism.

This link is very important.

The army is an institution that must be respected.

It must be a professional and strong institution.

But I don't want to be president and Minister of Defense at the same time.

The jurist Assul is in favor of returning to the system of the democratic opening of 1989, with a head of Government who is accountable to Parliament.

“I believe that democratic learning must be carried out through a Parliament representative of the popular will, which will also exercise its mission of control,” she warns against the concentration of power in the hands of the President of the Republic.

“Algeria is also a huge country.

The territory cannot be managed through centralized decisions.

Each region has its specificity,” she adds, in what seems to be a nod to the Kabylia region in the north of the country, with a majority Berber population.

Foreign policy dialogue

“In Algeria we have a traditional doctrine in foreign policy: we are a non-aligned country, we talk to everyone, we want to have good relations with everyone.

That's the first rule.

The second is that Algeria does not want to get involved in the internal problems of any country, whether neighbor or not.

My position is to resort to dialogue, whatever the problem, ”explains his diplomatic program.

“I don't have much information about the causes of the latest frictions between Algeria and Spain.

My wish is that there are good relations with Spain, as a neighboring country in the Mediterranean.

“I am part of those who believe in the construction of the great Maghreb, of the Union for the Mediterranean,” he emphasizes.

“But it is true that there are territorial problems that still need to be found solutions in the United Nations,” he alludes to the dispute over Western Sahara.

“First you must always have international law.

From there, nothing prevents us from sitting around a table to try to find solutions, compromises.

That's politics.

We can't always be winners.

Not losers either.

We must move away from this logic,” he warns.

Economic opening

Assul also declares itself in favor of economic openness and the freedom to undertake business.

“This is fundamental, because we have a country of nearly 50 million inhabitants, where 75% of the population is young, and therefore we need to create millions of jobs,” he clarifies, “but we cannot move towards economic development without fundamental liberties".

He suggests that in an economy dependent on hydrocarbons like Algeria's, the priority should be focused on business creation.

“I hope to create one million small and medium-sized businesses during my term.

And there we will need the countries of the European Union to work with us so that our young people do not abandon Algeria.

I want my country to open up to the world,” he emphasizes his economic proposal.

Assul believes, however, that the culture of public subsidy that has prevailed in Algeria since independence must first change.

“Algerians should not be infantilized.

The important thing in the next 20 years is to promote a middle class that is the lever that drives the economy.

The role of the State is not to create wealth, but to create the climate for growth”, he details the economic turn he aspires to.

“It should not be limited, as until now, to managing hydrocarbon wealth.”

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