Algeria: Hundreds of pro-Hirak activists protest in Paris

Members of the Algerian diaspora or binationals, several hundred activists of the popular protest movement "Hirak" marched Sunday in Paris, to demand again a regime change in Algeria. 

The marchers carried both Amazigh (Berber) and Algerian flags They rejected the legitimacy of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, elected in December 2019, and the reform of the constitution voted last Thursday by the parliament, supposed to respond to the demands of the "hirak".

They also demanded for the release of two jailed activists from the anti-government "Hirak" protest movement. Both had been on hunger strike for over a week to protest their incarceration.

"It is wonderful that the movements have managed to unite in their diversity and despite their differences," said Fatiha Rahmouni, an Algerian lawyer and political refugee in France since 2015, to AFP.

According to her, this protest movement is "starting again" on the French side of the Mediterranean. On the Algerian side, "it is not possible for the moment, there is still a curfew, people are afraid," said Rahmouni, a member of the collective "Double Rupture: neither military nor Islamists".

Anti-government protests led by the Hirak movement last year swept ailing president Abdelaziz Bouteflika from power but continued afterwards, demanding the ouster of the entire state apparatus.

Weekly demonstrations rocked Algeria for more than a year and only came to a halt in March due to the coronavirus crisis.