In Algeria new leaders emerge at the helm of the protests against Bouteflika

Thousands of students, university professors and health workers rallied in Algiers on Tuesday calling for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to quit. Bouteflika, who has ruled for 20 years, bowed to the protesters last week by announcing he would not stand for another term. But he stopped short of stepping down immediately and said he would stay in office until a national conference had been convened and a new constitution would be adopted. The demonstraters perceived this move as a masquerade and a way to stay on for a fifth term without having been elected.

The protests have now been going on for about a month. Last Friday an enormous amount of people took part in a demonstration of really hitherto unknown proportions. In the meantime a new group of leaders has emerged, emboldened by the huge protests. The new leaders late on Monday issued a statement titled “Platform of Change”, demanding that Bouteflika step down before the end of his term on April 28 and the government resign immediately.
The Algerian authorities have long quite able to manipulate the opposition. But now the mass demonstrations emboldened well-known figures to lead the reform drive. Prominent members of the new group include lawyer and activist Mustapha Bouchachi, opposition leader Karim Tabou and former treasury minister Ali Benouari, as well as Mourad Dhina and Kamel Guemazi, who belong to an outlawed Islamist party. Zoubida Assoul, leader of a small political party, is the only woman in the group.
The leaders called on the army not to interfere. So far, soldiers have stayed in their barracks during the protests. But on Monday, Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Ahmed Gaed Salah hinted at a more active role, saying the army should take responsibility for finding a quick solution to the crisis.
Generals have traditionally been the ones that wielded power behind the scenes in Algeria, as is a well known public secret. They have publicly intervened at certain moments, like for instance in 1990 when they sent away presidnet Chadli Benjedid and cancelled an election that the Islamists of the FIS were poised to win. Their intervention at the time triggered a civil war that lasted a decade and cost at least 200.000 people their lives. What will happen this time remains to be seen.
Bouteflika’s newly appointed deputy prime minister, Ramtane Lamamra, in the meantime launched a tour of allied countries seeking support. On Tuesday he visited Moscow, long a military ally of Algeria. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a common press conference with Lamamra said Russia was concerned by the protests. But Lamamra defended the government’s reform proposals. He maintained that Bouteflika has agreed to hand over power to an elected president, and that the opposition will be allowed to take part in the cabinet that will oversee elections. The protesters, however, have been calling to replace the ruling elite dominated by the military, and businessmen with ties to the establishment and veterans of the 1954-1962 war of independence against France. They want a generation of new leaders