After weeks of government climbdowns and policy reversals, the scale and pace of Algeria’s popular protest movement continues unchecked. Across Algeria, Fridays have become synonymous with protest, with cities grinding to a halt as the cars and shoppers that typically occupy the public thoroughfares make way for brightly colored banners, chants and security forces.

In their hundreds of thousands, the young have powered Algeria’s popular movement. Continuing to demand the clans, nepotism and ingrained power structures that have smothered their country for decades make way for a new generation of leaders, untarnished by the sclerotic corruption that has come to characterize the old.

That it is the young who have served as the engine of protest will surprise few. Caught up within the bulging birth rates that have subsumed the region, 54% of Algeria’s current population are under 30 years of age. Significantly, unemployment stands at 26.4% within that same group.  

Beyond the country's already declining hydrocarbons industry, little opportunity exists for those seeking work outside the energy sector. Last year, nonenergy related exports made up just 6% of the country's output. Into this mix, throw in declining oil prices and the approximate 1.7 million students within the country's higher education system and some form of confrontation begins to look almost inevitable.