Algerians take to the streets in call for ailing president to stand down
TENS of thousands of Algerians defied riot police yesterday and resumed mass protests against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, posing the biggest threat to his 20-year-old rule.
Unusually, one of the most popular imams, or prayer leaders, in Algiers did not pray for the president as he does every Friday, and only wished the best for Algeria and its people.
Several lawmakers of the ruling FLN party have resigned to join the antigovernment protests, the private Ashourouq TV station said. No details were immediately available.
Train and metro services in Algiers were suspended without explanation before Algerians gathered again to press the 82-year-old president to step down.
Mr Bouteflika, who suffered a stroke in 2013, is in hospital in Geneva and has not spoken publicly since 2014. However, on Thursday he issued a warning to demonstrators, saying the unrest could destabilise the country.
The protests, the largest since the 2011 Arab Spring, pose the most substantial challenge yet to Mr Bouteflika, who is standing for re-election on April 18.
Tens of thousands of Algerians, tired of the dominance of veterans of the 1954-1962 war of independence against France, are demanding he step down.
Mr Bouteflika has offered to limit his term after the election, but people from all classes of society, including students and young families, are still on the street.
Some long-time allies of the president, including members of the ruling party, have expressed support for the protesters, revealing cracks within a elite long regarded as invincible.
Older Algerians with dark memories of the civil war in the Nineties have tolerated crackdowns on dissent in exchange for stability, and Mr Bouteflika avoided the kind of uprising that toppled Arab leaders in 2011 because the state had enough foreign reserves to boost state spending.
But the young want jobs and are tired of what they perceive as widespread corruption. More than a quarter of Algerians under 30 are unemployed.
Algerians have been urged to stage a “March of 20 million” by an anonymous party on social media, and thousands gathered in Algiers ahead of what could be the biggest demonstrations yet in the capital and other cities.
“Bouteflika, go!” read one banner. “Algeria is a republic, not a kingdom.”