Algerians keep up mass protests for fifth consecutive week
Over the past week, many within the Algerian government have switched over to the side the protesters, but it's unclear how welcome they will be this late in the game.
Protesters throughout Algeria again took to the country’s rain-soaked streets for the fifth weekend running to voice their unequivocal rejection of the latest bid by the country’s 82-year-old president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, to retain his faltering grip upon the reins of office.
In the face of relentless demonstrations, fueled by the weakness of the regime and its succession of qualified compromises and superficial reversals, protests have grown to the point where they are effectively paralyzing the country. On March 18, Bouteflika reiterated his position, issuing a letter underscoring his determination to remain within the presidential palace until the process of constitutional reform was complete.
However, after nearly three decades in office, the offer of reform has convinced few. Instead, demonstrators have dismissed the de facto extension of his fourth term as a ploy to buy time for the enfeebled president’s shadowy coterie of advisers — known as the pouvoir — to conceal decades of corruption gained from their position at the heart of the presidency.
“The people no longer want to be represented by a president who is seriously ill and can no longer assume his duties, and who is surrounded by clans working in [the shadows], which has given birth to a corrupt system,” a spokesperson for the group I Am Algerian told Al-Monitor.
