Algeria's recent referendum was a thinly veiled attempt to hijack the agenda of the country's popular Hirak protest movement. Yet the people are no longer willing to accept ageing leaders who rely on a veneer of democracy to maintain their rule. Legitimacy will only be achieved by genuine structural reforms. By Dalia GhanemMore
Exploiting the coronavirus emergency, Algeria’s ruling classes have ramped up their repressive campaign against the protest movement, opposition and free media. By Sofian Philip NaceurMore
Few would have thought that Algeria's Hirak protest movement would still be mobilising the masses 12 months on from its first peaceful demonstration. According to Isabelle Werenfels and Luca Miehe, the systemic change people hoped for post-Bouteflika has yet to materialise. External players need to brace themselves for ongoing political turbulenceMore
The upheavals of the past year in the MENA region are arguably as momentous as those of the Arab Spring in 2011. Yet perhaps the biggest difference is that our interest seems to have evaporated. Why? Essay by Jannis HagmannMore
Algeria's political impasse has been going on for weeks. Attempts to calm the public mood by sacrificing some of the Bouteflika faithful has only served to fuel demonstrators' demands that all such remnants of the old guard be rooted out. Whether there is an election or not, the crisis seems set to continue, writes political analyst Ali AnouzlaMore
Presidential elections or constitutional assembly? Algeria's opposition continues to argue over ways to overcome the crisis. A proposal by the Jil Jadid party could finally break down the entrenched fronts. Sofian Naceur spoke to its leader, Soufiane DjilaliMore
For more than four months now, protesters in Algeria have been urging a clean-up of the country's politics and a new constitution. But how realistic is change given the military's iron grip on power? By Dalia GhanemMore
On 15 June, Algiers hosted a National Conference of Civil Society with the aim of producing a roadmap on how to shape the countryʹs – hopefully – democratic future. Yet at a time when civil society is just beginning to re-awaken, some wonder whether it will really be able to influence the possible transition that is looming. By Nourredine BessadiMore
For people in the Arab world to be able to throw off the yoke of military rule, a new balance must be struck between political and social forces and the military. Though it is now years since the Arab Spring, this goal still seems a long way off. By Ali AnouzlaMore
"Zabor", the new novel by Algerian star author Kamel Daoud, tells the story of the outsider Ismael, who discovers poetry as a means of survival. Stefan Weidner sees parallels in the novel with the situation in Algeria following the ousting of BouteflikaMore
Ask what happened to the spirit of Tahrir Square and we find the reply in the Maghreb. Today Tahrir Square is in Algeria, in Sudan, and in many other places besides. Perhaps the secret of the Arab Spring lies not in its victories or its defeats, writes Elias Khoury, but in its ability to liberate people from fearMore
He was brought in by the generals to save the regime, instead he ousted them one after the other. But Bouteflika was no democrat. He had come to rule for life and be buried as President. Now his own people appear to be de-railing those plans. By Bachir AmrouneMore
As Algerians wait with baited breath to see if Bouteflika steps down, Nourredine Bessadi takes a look at the role social media is playing in the current wave of social and political unrest. Already influencing the countryʹs political trajectory, will this cyberspace discourse ultimately challenge the legitimacy of the state?More
Demonstrations against the controversial presidential candidacy of ailing Algerian leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika are snowballing into a mass nationwide protest movement. The end of his clan's regency is only a matter of time. Sofian Philip Naceur reports from AlgeriaMore
However they may appear in their early stages, Arab civil wars are wars between kinsfolk. The social group becomes partisan, whether sectarian, tribal, party political or ethnic. Whatʹs more, argues Morris Ayek, Arab civil wars have no endMore
Joseph Andras′ debut novel ″De nos freres blesses″ (Of Our Wounded Brothers) touches upon a sore spot in French history, recalling the time when Algeria was a French colony and French anti-colonialists fought alongside Algerians. Claudia Kramatschek read the bookMore
The southern state of Chiapas in the indigenous Mayan heartland of Mexico shows how vital the Muslim community is in this predominantly Roman Catholic country. Many predominantly indigenous Tzotzil men and women have converted to Islam from Catholic or other Christian denominations. By Edgard Garrido
