Algerian university students announced yesterday a national strike and shut down a number of universities to express their rejection of the regime's continued rule. Police released 10 activists in a youth movement and leftist party hours after they were arrested as they tried to demonstrate "condemning the crackdown on Friday."
Students of the Faculty of Medicine in Algiers, as well as students from the University of Blida, Bab El-Zourou, the Central University of the capital and the University of Wadi Souf, entered a week-long strike in support of the popular movement and demanding radical change.
Students of Mustapha Istamboli University continue their protest camp for a second day in a row, paralyzing all seven colleges as part of the popular movement that Algeria has been living for two months.
The terraces turned into awareness workshops under the slogan "Home before all" and "The call of the homeland is first from work and study."
The doors of the university, like the Institute of Law and Economics, were closed by students who passed on their entrances and raised national flags, asserting their determination to continue protesting for total change.
The students of the University of Sheikh Al-Arabi Al-Tabbsi in the city of Tabessa closed the road leading to the airport in anticipation of the departure of Energy Minister Mohammed Arqb in the government of Badawi. And raised slogans against the government and demanding her departure, and described them without legitimacy and the government of shame.
The students of the University of Hama Lakhdar in the city of the valley closed the doors of the university in solidarity with the popular movement and expressed their readiness to continue this protest throughout the week in light of the ongoing political crisis, As the candles of the nation and the makers of the bright future of new Algeria.
For his part, said the former prime minister and head of the party of the forefront of opposition freedoms, Ali bin Flis, that the stage experienced by the country is a coup and not a transitional.
He called for the implementation of Article 7 and 8 of the Constitution to restore power to the people and to respond to the demands of mobility. He said that the current constitution impeded a quick solution to the political crisis. He also called for the preservation of "the national state, Demands of the popular movement calling for change ».
"The important thing today is to preserve the national state and to reflect the demands of the popular movement," said Benflis at the Dialogue Daily Forum. "Unconstitutional forces seek to thwart these demands."
"Nothing has changed in terms of the legal arsenal, the survival of the electoral law itself, and the lack of an independent body to oversee the electoral process," said the head of the Party of the Liberals of Freedom.
He added in the same context: «Our position with the Algerian people who reject these elections».
He stressed that he had not yet received any contact from the head of state, Abdul Qadir bin Saleh, for consultations, stressing that the National People's Army "is required to accompany and protect the transitional path, and not to interfere in political affairs," and said that this was expressed by «all Data of the Ministry of National Defense ».
The police released 10 activists in a youth movement and a left-wing party last night, hours after they were arrested as they tried to demonstrate "condemning the suppression of Friday's march," the Association of the Algerian Youth Association confirmed to AFP yesterday.
The activists were arrested and taken to a security center away from the center of the capital as they were preparing to gather at the Central Post Square, the center of the protest movement since its start on February 22.
"We were released waiting to be free," wrote Hakim Madaf, the organization's former secretary-general, on his Facebook page.
Young people gather every day at 5 pm to denounce the "desire for repression and the prevention of demonstrations" during the week, as explained by the vice-president of the Assembly of Youth Algeria.
Apart from Friday, the weekly schedule of mass demonstrations in all parts of the country, Algiers is witnessing demonstrations on different days of the week.
On Tuesday, the demonstration day for university students and their teachers, the police tried for the first time to disperse the march using tear gas, without succeeding.
Yesterday morning, the police changed their position in the center of the capital and occupied the central post office itself to prevent the assembly.
After weeks of demonstrations, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was forced to step down on April 2 after 20 years of rule. However, the protesters were not satisfied with this, demanding the departure of the "regime" in all its components, headed by transitional president Abdulqadir bin Saleh.
• The former prime minister of the party of the leading opposition freedoms, Ali bin Flis, said that the stage of the country is a coup, not a transitional one.