Is the Algerian Hirak Over?

Luis Martinez (1)

1 CERI - Centre de recherches internationales (Sciences Po, CNRS)

From 2019 to 2020, an unprecedented popular social movement in Algeria, known as the Hirak, aimed to peacefully change the system and establish the rule of law. The protestors sought to establish a ‘civil, non-military state’, as their slogans proclaimed. Rereading the history of post-colonial Algeria, the demonstrators declared that the 1954 revolution had been hijacked by the army. They therefore revived forgotten figures from the nation’s history like Abane Ramdane, the architect of the Congress of Soummam, assassinated in 1957; Larbi Ben M’Hidi and Ali la Pointe, revolutionary leaders during the Algerian war of independence, and others like them. The Hirak also spoke of ‘the confiscated independence’ discussed by former interim Prime Minister Ferhat Abbas

Keywords: Algeria; Hirak; Authoritarianism; Political Movements; Political Transition

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Political science

Luis Martinez. Is the Algerian Hirak Over?. Rowaq Arabi, 2022, 27 (3), pp.13-19. ⟨10.53833/SPHF8052⟩. ⟨hal-03871465⟩