President Abdelmajid Tebboune summons a referendum on the 1st of November for a new constitution in his hand. Submitted to a power which is doing everything to muzzle them on the pretext of the Covid-19 pandemic, Hirak militants are working to avoid divisions by developing an alternative political project. The debates are heated and the way seems narrow.
So what is the result of Hirak, a protest movement unprecedented in the history of Algeria which, for more than a year, occupied the streets without any eruption of violence? And this, despite the maneuvers of power, repression, defamation of activists, and the ban on demonstrations.
Only the Covid-19 pandemic got the better of the bi-weekly marches. “More repression and a greater closure of the political game,” answers Mustapha Bendjama. The editor-in-chief of the daily Le Provincial Based in Annaba in the east of the country is the victim of judicial harassment by the authorities because of his coverage of the movement. In October, four trials against him are scheduled. He is notably prosecuted for two cases concerning publications on social networks and, since September 28, for contempt of body.
In recent weeks, the authorities have intensified the repression, including in Kabylia, a region until untouched by imprisonment, in order to end the movement. Given the immense mobilization, disappointment is felt in the ranks of the Hirak. The recovery of public space was his main achievement. Week after week, protesters resolutely faced police violence and struggled to be able to assemble freely and publicly express their ideas. The wall of fear has receded, open criticism from the country’s leaders, including generals, has become commonplace.
But no institutional or legislative change has made it possible to act on this and therefore avoid any backtracking, not even a repeal of the measure taken in 2001 by the government of Ali Benfils which bans gatherings in Algiers. Meeting permits for parties and organizations close to Hirak is still difficult to obtain, as evidenced by an activist from the association Rassemblement Actions Jeunesse ( RAJ ), an NGO which has not obtained the right to organize its university. summer and of which twelve members were imprisoned.
A TAILOR-MADE REFERENDUM
On the political front, the poorly elected President Abdelmajid Tebboune on December 12, 2019 is preparing to submit to a referendum a revision of the Constitution voted by the two chambers of Parliament in September 2020 without any real debate. According to many observers, this Constitution strengthens its authority, further consolidates its executive power, and sees the departure of a major objective of the Hirak: a real separation of powers. She is ” pharaonic ” in the words of the lawyer and president of the Union for Change and Progress Zoubida Assoul . Tebboune remains president and at the same time, minister of defense. He also has control over the judiciary. He still chairs the Superior Council of the Judiciary and appoints six members to it.
