Rabat – Constant, even rampant “degagisme” (get out-ism) has dominated in Algeria for the past 37 weeks.
Since February, demonstrators have taken to the streets around the North African country, but mostly in the capital Algiers, every Friday to resolutely ask for political regeneration and total rupture from the Bouteflika years.
Algerians this week on Friday again took to the streets in Algiers in even greater waves to reiterate their demands for a new political chapter for the country, one that is cleansed of the corruption, patronage, government complacency, and rentierism that prevailed under President Bouteflika and the surviving faces now leading the interim government.
This week’s mobilization came in spite of the transition government’s apparent determination to go on with its scheduled elections in December, a move that the population has repeatedly called out as an intricately plot engineered by survivors of the Bouteflika establishment to ensure continuity.
As their previous protest Fridays, youth, civil society, and workers’ rights groups were clear they want the last remaining breed of the Bouteflika species to leave before genuine elections can be hold.
With this week marking the 65th anniversary of the country’s independence from France, the BBC reported, people went out in larger numbers than they have had so far to demand a “new revolution.”
“Protesters do not want an election next month,” the report explained. “They argue that it would not be transparent or fair under the current political system.”
