France – and Europe – could become the frontline in Algeria’s latest crisis

As the European parliament elections approach, the continent’s navel-gazing is ever more myopic. Even its two most outward focused states, France and Britain, are consumed by domestic crises. And yet in Europe’s backyard – across the Mediterranean, in Algeria – radical change is taking place with potentially serious ramifications for the European Union and France.

Every Friday since February the authoritarian Algerian regime has been the target of tens of thousands of peaceful demonstrators on a scale unknown since the country’s troubled independence from France in 1962. The spark was 82-year-old Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s announcement that he would seek a fifth term as president, despite being chronically debilitated by a stroke since 2013. Popular anger, shouldered by army pressure, forced Bouteflika’s resignation on 2nd April.

But the demonstrations have not relented, with calls for the removal of the entire corrupt Bouteflika clan from political and economic power. The purge so far however is too slow and too limited for the people.