Saturday, March 2. The press, including those close to the government and the Prime Minister, are forced to acknowledge that “the street wants change“. On the eve of the deadline for candidates to submit their applications to run for office, set for March 3, the question is posed: Are some of them, those “up there on top”, considering a way out of the crisis? In recent days, others have also spoken of a desirable “postponement of the presidential election”. In any case, the announcement of the dismissal of Bouteflika’s campaign director, Abdelmalek Sellal, and his replacement by another senior official of the regime, is a flop.

Sunday, March 3. This is a crucial day because, according to the Constitution, it is on this day that candidates must submit their candidacy applications to the Constitutional Council.

During the day, Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s nomination is submitted for a fifth term, as is that of a retired general, Ali Ghediri, who announced his candidacy a few weeks earlier.

“Ghediri, candidate of the regime, you have thrown Boutef a lifejacket!“, chanted students gathered in the early afternoon on the outskirts of the Constitutional Council. For many citizens, the announcement of these candidates reinforces the illegitimate nature of the election from the outset and, beyond that, of the institutions.

A letter, attributed to Abdelaziz Bouteflika and read on public television, states that he has heard “the cry from the hearts of the demonstrators and in particular from the hearts of thousands of young people”. He goes on to pledge that, if re-elected, he will draft a new Constitution, and will not to stand as a candidate in an early presidential election. In the evening and then at night, there was a spontaneous and unprecedented mobilization of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets against what appears to be a coup de force.

On March 3, the newspaper El Watan published an appeal that has been circulating for several days, signed by eleven academics and writers — including the former dean of the Faculty of Law of Algiers — and known as the “Intellectuals’ Appeal for the Constituent Assembly”. This text states, in particular: “We call for the organization of national assemblies bringing together all the democratic forces of the nation, which should strive to define the conditions for a political transition, with the establishment of a Constituent Assembly whose task will be to give the country a new Constitution and to prepare plural, free and open elections so that, for the first time in its history, the Algerian people will finally appropriate their full sovereignty.”

This is one initiative among others, which expresses the search for a democratic political outcome, reclaiming a slogan — the Sovereign Constituent Assembly — that was at the heart of the North African Star (Etoile Nord Africaine, or ENA) program since its formation in 1927 as the first organization fighting for the independence of Algeria and that of the Maghreb nations.

Monday, March 4. In many universities, the strike is massively supported, with the extension of the night demonstrations of the previous day.

From nine in the morning, a dense crowd has gathered around the Maison du peuple d’Alger, the headquarters of the UGTA trade union federation. Trade unionists, some from afar, have responded to calls challenging the positions of the top union officials, including those of Secretary General Sidi Saïd, a supporter of the fifth term. “Sidi Saïd, get out of here!” – “Independent and democratic UGTA!” – “Privileged, privileged — and they call themselves trade unionists!“, chanted nearly 3,000 activists and leaders, while others were mobilized by the union leadership for a vote “against” — that is, in support of the policies of the officialdom. The rally was finally dispersed by the police around 11am.

In tandem with this movement in which union activists and leaders seek to reclaim their unions for independent struggle, the working class is also seeking to set itself in motion. This Monday, in the late morning, at Sonatrach — the emblematic public hydrocarbon company — nearly half of the workforce walked off the job … and management was struggling to “get the workers back” in the afternoon.