Coronavirus restrictions set the streets alight in Algeria
On the last Saturday in January, the Algerian government extended the partial lockdown for two weeks in 19 regions of the country to combat the spread of COVID-19.
Restrictions such as maintaining the curfew, closing entertainment and sports venues and limiting opening hours for businesses, including restaurants, were not well received by Algerians, who do not understand the measures when according to official figures there have been fewer than 300 cases detected daily in January. In the coastal town of Jijel, hundreds of people came out to protest on two consecutive nights.
"Failed policies are more dangerous than the coronavirus," banners carried by the mostly young protesters, who also chanted songs from the popular protest movement that began in February 2019 against the country's ruling Hirak class, read.
Approximately 50,000 artisans and traders have seen their businesses disappear in the midst of an economic crisis aggravated by the pandemic, but which began some time earlier following the fall in oil revenues, one of the country's main sources of wealth.
The government has tried to stem business bankruptcies by implementing fiscal measures and granting small businesses 30,000 dinars over a three-month period. It has also allocated 10,000 dinars for the neediest families.
However, another problem plaguing the national economy is the devaluation of the currency and inflation, which has a direct impact on household purchasing power, coupled with a precarious labour market.
In Laghouat and Ouargla, towns in the south of the country, several demonstrations took place in January, despite repression by the authorities, to denounce the underdevelopment of a region rich in gas and oil.
The protesters demanded decent housing and jobs, as well as an end to corruption. "Our children have diplomas, but they can't find work", denounced a citizen in one of the many videos posted on social media.
In the north of the country, in the town of Bordj Bou Arreridj, workers from the Condor household appliances company demanded the departure of the company's court-appointed administrator and the payment of their salaries for the month of December. Demands similar to those that have taken place in other industrial towns such as Tizi- Ozou and Béjaia, as other large Algerian companies face financial difficulties following legal proceedings involving former managers implicated in corruption cases.
Experts in the region say that unless the bleak economic outlook is reversed and the country's governance is changed to build public confidence, there is a real danger of a social implosion in the short term.
"Algeria is facing a difficult and unprecedented economic situation due to several factors: the structural crisis inherited from the Bouteflika era, the fall in hydrocarbon prices and finally the coronavirus crisis", acknowledged Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad in August last year. According to IMF data, the economy would have contracted by 5.2 per cent in 2020 and the budget deficit would be among the highest in the region.
On the other hand, the constitutional reform offered by the government to the demonstrators demanding real political change in the country has led to widespread indifference among the population.
The prime minister stated that the vaccination campaign will be spread throughout the year and that 8,000 vaccination centres have already been set up. By the end of December 2020, the country would have received 500,000 doses of the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, and later batches of the vaccine from Astrazeneca and China's Sinopharm.
"The quantity will be sufficient," Djerad told the media shortly before being vaccinated.
