Algeria's Movement for a Peaceful Society (MSP) voted in Abderrezak Mokri as head of the Islamist party on Saturday (May 4th), replacing Bouguerra Soltani.
In choosing Mokri as party leader, activists followed the hard-line wing of the party and sealed the split with the government that began with the outbreak of the Arab Spring.
The fifth MSP congress, which was held over the week-end in Algiers, brought together Islamist leaders from several nations, including Tunisia, Libya, Syria and Egypt, and even Palestinian movement Hamas.
MSP leaders said they wanted to send a clear message to the Algerian government about the movement's determination to follow the path of opposition.
The election of Mokri as MSP leader symbolised the decision made by the party's grassroots, which had accused the leadership of making too many concessions to the government.
According to Liberté, "MSP has chosen a leader known for his radical attitude towards the government. This will move the party even further away from the policy of entryism which it espoused until it withdrew from the coalition in December 2011."
"By an overwhelming majority -177 votes to just 65 for the former chairman of the party's advisory council, Abderrahmane Saidi, the party has opted for a radical path by advocating a complete break with the government," El Watan editorialised.
"And the symbol of this movement is, of course, Abderrezzak Mokri, who has worked for several years already to bring the MSP back to its original position," the paper added. "He was the man responsible for the party's split with the coalition government (RND, FLN and MSP) that was created just before the 2004 presidential election, which has been the main victim of the Arab Spring."
In response to these criticisms, the new MSP leader countered that he was "on a mission of peace, not war or revolution", adding that those who feared him were "either incompetent or corrupt".
Mokri claims that under his leadership, the party will be "clearly and candidly" in opposition "We don't want a revolution, because that is dangerous for the country. We want to bring about a peaceful change by keeping up the pressure on the government," Morki said.
Yet the ambitions expressed by the MSP's new leader are at odds with the climate on the streets of Algeria. Many young people do not regard Islamist parties highly and believe that they have no chance of taking power in Algeria.
"Do they (the Islamists) think that a revolution can be imported from elsewhere and that all they have to do is grow a beard, wear a kameez and recite a few verses of the Qur'an to get round us?" asked Amine Larab, a management student. "They're fakes. They are in the business of politics, like all the other parties, and in politics, everyone lies, everyone makes promises and fails to keep them."
His friend Reda Bouhali burst out laughing when he read the press reports about the MSP congress, saying: "It's a party that can't make up its mind: one day it's in government, the next it's in opposition. What credibility does it have left now?"
Older people were even more wary, as they lived through the days of the now-dissolved Islamic Salvation Front.
"We will never let these men with beards come back and create problems for us. We've suffered enough because of them," said teacher Nadia Guermadi.
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