Major Hirak marches on 5 March — followed by those with women and students on 8 and 9 March — suggest that the resurgence of the Hirak is here to stay. Except for the protests on 8-9 March, these demonstrations have been met with increased police brutality and repression. This has led to denouncements by domestic legal and human rights organisations and have finally attracted the attention of both the international media and global organisations, including the United Nations Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Falling foul of the UN agency is unwise. The OHCHR, which is already investigating the recent allegations of torture and sexual abuse by the security forces, has called on the authorities to immediately end violence against peaceful protesters and arbitrary arrests. Unspecified measures have been threatened if it does not.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s immediate response showed little or no sign that he understands the seriousness of the Hirak movement or the fundamental nature of its demands. Instead, he seems to be prioritising the restructuring of the intelligence services and the holding of early parliamentary elections on 12 June, but both moves could be catastrophic for him. 

In order to circumvent the problems posed by the continued existence of the much-loathed Front de libération nationale (FLN) and Rassemblement national démocratique (RND), government parties, it appears as if the regime is attempting to create a new party called Nida El Watan. Inevitably, however, this will be seen by the Hirak as merely another government party. 

The elections will almost certainly be widely boycotted, but this does not seem to bother Tebboune, who sees the mere holding of elections — irrespective of whether they are boycotted — as meeting the Hirak’s demands for democracy and furthering his already badly damaged plan for a ‘new Algeria.’

The government’s proposed new law empowering it to deprive expatriate Algerians of their nationality has been virtually universally denounced. It is becoming clear that it is designed to provide the regime with a means to threaten the thousands of overseas Algerians and especially those in the Rachad movement whom it naively sees as its opponents and the ‘enemies of the Algeria.’

The government appears to have begun moves to try and reduce the state’s massive consumer subsidy system which is currently costing it around US$18 billion a year.

Sonatrach’s sudden cancellation of the EPC-2 development project in the Tinrhert gas field has raised further questions about Sonatrach’s senior management and whether, with rapidly rising domestic consumption, Algeria will have sufficient gas to export any within the next decade.