The Referendum and 1 November in Algeria

November 1st is the anniversary of the Algerian people's revolution against colonialism. A painful revolution of a people that rose up in arms but was betrayed by a faction of the Liberation Army led by the Oujda group under the command of Colonel Houari Boumedian and his recently dethroned lieutenant Abdelaziz Bouteflika from the very moment it gained independence. 

The military assault on power put an end to the primacy of the political over the military, as adopted during the Summam Congress in August 1956. In order to consolidate itself in a populist revolutionary power, this military plot did not hesitate to assassinate, without scruples, the fathers of the Revolution and authors of the 1 November 1954 Manifesto. 

These leaders included Aban Ramdan, considered the soul and architect of the revolution, who was strangled in Tetouan (Morocco) by Boussouf, alias "colonel Si Mabrouk", who was the founder of the secret services.

Karim Belkacem, a founder of the FLN and signatory of the Algerian Act of Independence, was strangled in his hotel in Frankfurt (Germany) by Boumedian's special services. Mohammed Khider, General Secretary of the FLN, was murdered in Madrid by the same services. Within Algeria, the dramatic case of President Mohammed Boudiaf, one of the founders of the FLN and the main writer of the Manifesto of 1 November 1954, should be mentioned. The latter, after many years as a refugee from the military regime in very special and unprecedented circumstances. The date of this glorious anniversary was undoubtedly not chosen by chance by Algeria's new president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, to hold the referendum on the new constitution. Nor is it insignificant that the drafters of the new Constitution introduced 1 November 1954 as a reference in the same Magna Carta and quoted three times in its Preamble. It should also be pointed out that Algeria is an integral part of the Greater Maghreb. 

This new Constitution was drafted following the unprecedented peaceful revolution of the Algerian people against the Bouteflika regime, which was placed at the head of the state by the military in 1999. During his 20-year reign he abused power and caused serious impoverishment of Algeria and its people, while his gang, the people around him and the tentacles of the nomenklatura have grown richer. This is why this new constitution recognises in its preamble the role of the peaceful revolution of the Hirak who overthrew the tyrant and his clique.

Introducing 1 November 1954 into the Constitution itself and choosing this day to hold the referendum is a return to the channels of legitimacy of power that have been assaulted and usurped. It would therefore be an attempt to return to a truly civil system, a democratic power that the Algerian Revolution had been yearning for since 1 November 1954 and a path towards the building of a United Maghreb, as envisaged in the Constitution. 

Indeed, the 1 November Manifesto establishes an intimate and inseparable relationship between the struggle for independence and the unity of the Maghreb, so that it does not conceive of independence outside the framework of Maghreb union. Indeed, in its first sentence the manifesto proclaims this in a resounding manner: 

"The Algerian people, militants in the national cause. To you who are called to judge us, the first in general, the second in particular......, (with "first" referring to the Algerian people and "second" to the militants of the cause) that the meaning of our action, its foundation and its objective is national independence within the North African framework".

The next sentence of the proclamation cites only Morocco and Tunisia as Maghreb countries that deeply mark the process of the liberation struggle in North Africa, pointing out that they have been precursors to the unity of action in the struggle between the three countries which unfortunately was not achieved:

After referring to the internal Algerian differences that involve irreparable risks, he announced that the time had come to bring the national movement out of the impasse and personal struggles, to launch itself alongside the Moroccan and Tunisian brothers in the real revolutionary struggle:

The Manifesto once again mentions North Africa as a whole when it acclaims as the objective of the Algerian revolution the building of North African unity in the natural Arab-Muslim framework:

Unfortunately, from the first moment of independence, not only have the Algerian people been the victims of an assault on power, depriving them of a democratic and civil system, but they have also been deprived of their Maghreb union, together with the rest of the North African peoples.

The Algerians and the rest of the Maghreb people are deeply saddened to see how this dream union was betrayed. They are saddened to see how this process of integrating the North African countries has been set aside in favour of another reverse process within the Maghreb itself, which aims to disintegrate and create failed states. This is happening precisely at a time when the countries of the world are joining together in the framework of globalisation to create large economic areas and eliminate barriers and borders.

If colonialism was blamed for the divisions in the past because it applied the "divide and rule" expression, the peoples of the Maghreb are suffering more from the divisions today than during colonialism. 

Under colonialism, there was more freedom of movement of the Maghreb people between their countries and there was more economic and social exchange than when independence was achieved. 

In Europe, Spain and France, once colonising powers, are today, paradoxically and without doubt, more interested than ever in seeing a united, stable and prosperous Maghreb.

With this new Constitution, Abdelmadjid Tebboune has a historic opportunity before him, similar to the brilliant Spanish experience that took place during Adolfo Suárez's government. Spain successfully achieved a transition from a dictatorial military regime to a civilian one based on a genuine parliamentary democracy. President Suárez came from a Franco regime, a former member of the National Movement and held posts of high responsibility. His phalangist and responsible past in a fascist regime did not prevent him from introducing the deep and radical changes that Spain badly needed. It was not an easy matter, but an arduous task. But he managed to create a climate and a dynamic on which the leaders of the political parties and the country's living forces embarked, and as a result Spain is now democratic.

The same circumstances apply to Algeria. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who belonged to the FLN and was a minister in Bouteflika's government, was elected head of the Republic in a controversial election. 

Despite the dubious legitimacy of the election, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, with his background, may, like Suárez in Spain, be the man of change in Algeria and in the Maghreb context. 

He can introduce deep changes in favour of a transition to a truly civilian and democratic regime. At the same time, he can sponsor a genuine reconciliation at North African level in order to build a united Maghreb as the founders of Maghreb nationalism hoped for in both the 1 November Manifesto and the 1958 Tangiers Declaration.