Algeria: a 60th anniversary between appeasement and political status quo

While the conflict with Morocco exacerbates, the regime, strongly contested during the Hirak movement between 2019 and 2021, seeks to “consolidate the inner front”.

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The greatest military parade since independence, the largest distribution of housing ever organized in the country, the issue of a new coin of 200 dinars … and gestures to the prisoners of the protest movement of the protest movement Hirak. The Algerian authorities have chosen to make an impression on the commemoration, on July 5, 2022, of the 60 e anniversary of the independence of Algeria.

The Algerians have been feeling for several days the effects of the preparations of the big day due to the closure of the circulation of the northern ring road in the capital. If some express on social networks their irritation in front of the inconvenience caused by this closure, many comment with pride the videos of rehearsals which take place in the presence of the public.

While the fiftieth of independence had taken place in an atmosphere of relative routine under the presidency of an Abdelaziz Bouteflika with already declining health, the Algerian power intends to mark this new birthday under Abdelmadjid Tebboune, with As a slogan “a glorious story and a new era”. Several foreign heads of state including the Tunisian president, Kaïs Saïed, and the head of the Palestinian authority, Mahmoud Abbas, were to attend the commemorations.

the army in the Lodges

The army, whose informal political weight was challenged by the Hirak participants, who claimed a “civil and non -military status” during the weekly demonstrations which were held from 2019 to 2021, is at the forefront. The revision of the Constitution in November 2020 accentuated the weight of the military institution, by entrusting it to the mission of “defending the vital and strategic interests of the country”.

The chief of staff of the army, Saïd Chengriha, was promoted by the Head of State, Monday, during a ceremony of presentation of the ranks, to the rank of general army. The large military parade scheduled for Tuesday is considered a message sent outside, especially in Morocco. Tensions with Rabat, already lively on the question of Western Sahara, have exacerbated themselves with the espionage affair, via the Pegasus program, thousands of Algerian mobiles and declarations of the representative of Morocco to the UN on independence from Kabylia. The entry of Israel into Maghreb space following diplomatic normalization with Rabat is perceived by Algiers as a serious threat.

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/Media reports.