Nine months ago, Algerian citizens started to demonstrate against Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s regime. This movement, called “Hirak”, is not losing momentum. On the contrary, it is stepping up with a main demand: a radical change in the political system.
All over the world, from Paris or Marseille to Montreal through Barcelona, London, Geneva… the Algerian diaspora joined the movement. In Paris, demonstrators gather every Sunday since the beginning of the movement in February.
In Algeria, the popular resistance has led to the downfall of the Bouteflika government on April 2nd, 2019 and to the cancellation of the presidential elections that were planned to take place on April 18th and July 4th 2019. For the Algerians, the next step is to achieve a complete change of the system which rules Algeria and set up transitional institutions.
On Tuesday October 29th, the demonstrators requested that the presidential election set to take place on December 12th should not be organised by the army, which is running the country, but by a broad coalition so as to make sure that it is truly free and democratic. Failing that, the Algerians who took the streets announced that they would boycott this election in which two ex-prime ministers of the deposed President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will run.
Therefore, the European Green Party supports the movement of emancipation of the Algerian people and their demands for a broad coalition government to be set up to organise a democratic process worthy of the impressive, peaceful demonstrations that have taken place in Algeria since February 2019.
