Protests in Algeria Lead African News

The Wire

A pho­to depict­ing recent demon­stra­tions in Alge­ria as it appears on the pages of The Wire, April 5, 2019

Alge­ria, in North­ern Africa, is con­sid­ered a hotbed of the so-called Arab Spring move­ment. The Arab Spring which came alive in the Decem­ber 2010 peri­od swept away legit­i­mate, yet author­i­tar­i­an gov­ern­ments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen in a rev­o­lu­tion by civ­il soci­ety move­ments. The move­ments are believed to have laid the foun­da­tion for civ­il wars that fol­lowed years lat­er in some of these countries.

The recent events in Alge­ria which cul­mi­nat­ed with the res­ig­na­tion of Alger­ian leader Abde­laz­iz Boute­fli­ka on April 2 have been the sub­ject of much news in the media and plen­ty of dis­cus­sion at Think Tanks around the world. The Econ­o­mist, The Atlantic Coun­cil, The Busi­ness Dai­ly, Chatham House are among the lead­ing pub­li­ca­tions and Think Tanks spec­u­lat­ing about the events in Algeria. 

Google The events in Alge­ria have been the sub­ject of dis­cus­sion at Think Tanks and news­rooms around the world.

Remy Alla­houm of Aljazeera writes, “Hun­dreds of thou­sands of peo­ple took part in nation­wide demon­stra­tions demand­ing the ail­ing leader, who suf­fered a debil­i­tat­ing stroke in 2013, step down.”

A “New Arab Spring” is tak­ing place and it is under­way fol­low­ing the march­es and mass protests in the coun­try, accord­ing to The Wire. The protests which start­ed in Feb­ru­ary con­tin­ued into March and April. 

An octo­ge­nar­i­an, Boute­fli­ka has been in pow­er since 1999. The pres­i­dent ini­tial­ly resist­ed res­ig­na­tion but was forced to recon­sid­er the idea, say­ing he would resign after his cur­rent term end­ed on April 28.  When that was seen as not enough by the agi­tat­ing pop­u­la­tion, they took to the streets, forc­ing the pres­i­dent not only to say he won’t run again for office but to step down as pres­i­dent altogether.

Ramin Jahan­be­gloo of The Wire writes: “Civ­il soci­ety, more than the state appa­ra­tus, has become the core actor of democ­ra­ti­za­tion in Alge­ria, as was the case in the Jas­min Rev­o­lu­tion in Tunisia.”

Jahan­be­gloo con­tin­ues: “Though it is true that Islamism is still a ban­ner which holds for some groups in Alge­ria, there is no shad­ow of a doubt that the tran­si­tion from an author­i­tar­i­an gov­ern­ment to a lib­er­al gov­ern­ment is around the corner.”

A care­tak­er gov­ern­ment that the pres­i­dent appoint­ed before he resigned is now in charge of the affairs of the country.

Joshua Miller with the Wash­ing­ton DC-based Brook­ings Insti­tu­tion writes: “Fur­ther, polit­i­cal tur­moil in the coun­try has con­tin­ued as Algeria’s spy chief was fired on Fri­day and sev­er­al busi­ness­men close to Boute­fli­ka have had their pass­ports seized in recent days, pre­vent­ing them from trav­el­ing abroad.”