The National Liberation Front (; ), commonly known by its French acronym FLN, is a nationalist political party in Algeria ruling since the country's independence in 1962. It was the main nationalist movement during the Algerian War and the sole legal and ruling political party of the Algerian state until other parties were legalised in 1989.Europa World Year Book 2014, p. 565.
The FLN was established in 1954 following a split in the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties from members of the Special Organisation paramilitary; its armed wing, the National Liberation Army, participated in the Algerian War from 1954 to 1962. After the Évian Accords of 1962, the party purged internal dissent and ruled Algeria as a one-party state. After the 1988 October Riots and the Algerian Civil War (1991–2002) against Islamist groups, the FLN was reelected to power in the 2002 Algerian legislative election, and has generally remained in power until 2007, when it started forming coalitions with other parties.
History
Colonial era
The background of the FLN can be traced back to the growing anti-colonialism and Algerian nationalist sentiments since the outbreak of WWII. The repression against the Algerian Muslim population intensified as Abdelhamid Ben Badis was placed under house arrest and Marshal Pétain's government banned the Algerian Communist Party and Algerian People's Party.Evans, M. (2007). Algeria : Anger of the Dispossessed. London: Yale University Press, p. 49. As the war turned gradually more in favor of the Western Allies, given the US's global engagement and its ideological campaign against colonialism, the core sentiment amongst the Algerian nationalists was to use the victory in Europe to promote the independence of the country, which is reflected by the issuing of the Manifesto of the Algerian People by Ferhat Abbas.Evans (2007). Algeria : Anger of the Dispossessed, p. 50. As this objective failed to materialize, a new party Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties (MTDL) founded by the just-released Messali Hadj started to gain momentum and took the lead in the nationalist movement.Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Ahmed Messali Hadj" . Encyclopædia Britannica. January 01, 2019. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
However, the Algerian Assembly's double electoral college system stipulated an equal number of 60 representation between the French settlers and the Muslim community while the Muslim community was significantly larger than the settlers.Spencer, William. "Freedom and Unity in Algeria." World Affairs 121, no. 2 (1958): 35-37. . The underrepresentation combined with the unfair election in 1948 limited the MTDL's ability to gain further political power.Evans (2007). Algeria : Anger of the Dispossessed, p. 53. Consequently, the Algerian nationalists veered to a more military approach as noted in their participation in the Special Organisation, which was a paramilitary component of the MTLD and included important figures in Algerian politics such as Ahmed Ben Bella, Hocine Aït Ahmed, and Mohammed Boudiaf.
Later in 1951, the capture of Ahmed Ben Bella and the subsequent dismantling of the Special Organisation temporarily subdued the nationalist movement but sparked a desire in the Special Organisation militants to form a new organization – the Revolutionary Committee of Unity and Action (CRUA).McDougall, James. A History of Algeria New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017. p. 194 It initially had a five-man leadership consisting of Mostefa Ben Boulaïd, Larbi Ben M'hidi, Rabah Bitat, Mohamed Boudiaf and Mourad Didouche. They were joined by Krim Belkacem in August, and Hocine Aït Ahmed, Ahmed Ben Bella and Mohamed Khider later in the summer.Frank Tachau (1994) Political parties of the Middle East and North Africa, Greenwood Press, p31
The FLN was established on 10 October 1954. It succeeded the CRUA which had been formed earlier in the year because the CRUA failed to provide unity within the MTLD Party. On 1 November 1954, the FLN launched the Algerian War after publishing the Declaration of 1 November 1954 written by journalist Mohamed Aïchaoui. Didouche was killed on 18 January 1955, whilst both Ben Boulaïd and Bitat were captured by the French. Abane Ramdane was recruited to take control of the FLN's Algiers campaign, and went on to become one of its most effective leaders. By 1956, nearly all the nationalist organizations in Algeria had joined the FLN, which had established itself as the main nationalist group by co-opting and coercing smaller organizations; the most important group that remained outside the FLN was Messali Hadj's Algerian National Movement (MNA). At this time the FLN reorganized into something like a provisional government, consisting of a five-man executive and legislative body, and was organized territorially into six wilayas, following the Ottoman-era administrative boundaries.S. N. Millar, "Arab Victory: Lessons from the Algerian War (1954–62)", British Army Review, No. 145, Autumn 2008, p. 49.
The FLN's armed wing during the war was called the National Liberation Army (ALN). It was divided into guerrilla units fighting France and the MNA in Algeria (and wrestling with Messali's followers over control of the expatriate community, in the "Café Wars" in France), and another, stronger component more resembling a traditional army. These units were based in neighbouring Arab countries (notably in Oujda in Morocco, and Tunisia), and although they infiltrated forces and ran weapons and supplies across the border, they generally saw less action than the rural guerrilla forces. These units were later to emerge under the leadership of army commander Colonel Houari Boumediene as a powerful opposition to the political cadres of the FLN's exile government, the GPRA, and they eventually came to dominate Algerian politics.
FLN violence The Algerian war resulted in between 300,000 and 1.5 million deaths . The FLN is considered responsible for over 16,000 civilians killed and over 13,000 disappeared between 1954 and 1962.This number is given in the French Wikipedia, :fr:Guerre d'Algérie, §7.1 (Bilan humain) in a reference to: Guy Pervillé, "La guerre d'Algérie en face", L'Histoire, no. 331, May 2008, p. 96. After the ceasefire of 19 March 1962, the FLN is thought to have massacred thousands of harkis, Muslim Algerians who had served in the French army and whom the French, contrary to promises given, had denied a "repatriation" to France. Sorties de guerre (Returning from war). Sous la direction de Jacques Frémeaux et Michèle Battesti. 2005. Ministère de la Défense; Secrétariat général pour l'administration; Cahiers du Centre d'études d'histoire de la défense. Page 48. Retrieved 11 December 2016.Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–1962 (1977). An example of an FLN massacre is the Philippeville massacre.
Independence and one-party state The war for independence continued until March 1962, when the French government finally signed the Évian Accords, a ceasefire agreement with the FLN. In July of the same year, the Algerian people approved the cease-fire agreement with France in a referendum, supporting economic and social cooperation between the two countries as well. Full independence followed, and the FLN seized control of the country. Political opposition in the form of the MNA and Communist organizations was outlawed, and Algeria was constituted as a one-party state. The FLN became its only legal and ruling party.
Immediately after independence, the party experienced a severe internal power struggle. Political leaders coalesced into two large camps: a Political Bureau formed by the radical Ahmed Ben Bella, who was assisted by the border army, faced off against the political leadership in the former exile government; Boumédiène's army quickly put down resistance and installed Ben Bella as president. The single most powerful political constituency remained the former ALN, which had returned largely unscathed from exile and was now organized as the country's armed forces; added to this were regionally powerful guerrilla irregulars and others who jockeyed for influence in the party. In building his one-party regime, Ben Bella purged remaining dissidents (such as Ferhat Abbas), but also quickly ran into opposition from Boumédiène as he tried to assert himself independently from the army.
In 1965, the tension between Boumédiène and Ben Bella culminated in a coup d'état, after Ben Bella had tried to sack one of the Colonel's closest collaborators, Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika (who was elected President of Algeria in 1999). A statist-socialist and anticolonial nationalist, Boumédiène ruled through decree and "revolutionary legitimacy", marginalizing the FLN in favor of his personal decision-making and the military establishment, even while retaining the one-party system. Boumédiène held tight control over party leadership until his death in 1978, at which time the party reorganized again under the leadership of the military's next candidate, Col. Chadli Bendjedid. The military remained well-represented on the FLN Central Committee and is widely thought to have been the real power-broker in the country. During the 1980s the FLN toned down the socialist content of its programme, enacting some free-market reforms and purging Boumédiène stalwarts.
Multi-party era
It was not until 1988 that massive demonstrations and riots jolted the country towards major political reform. The riots led to the constitution being amended to allow a multi-party system. The first multi-party elections were the 1990 local elections, which saw the FLN heavily defeated by the Islamist Islamic Salvation Front (ISF), which won control of more than half the local councils; the FLN received just over a quarter of the vote, retaining control of a similar number of councils. The first round of the parliamentary elections the following year saw the ISF win 188 of the 231 seats, whilst the FLN won only 16, placing third behind the Socialist Forces Front. However, shortly afterwards, due to fears of the ISF forming an Islamic state, a military coup d'état cancelled the election process and forced president Bendjedid to resign, sparking the Algerian Civil War.
Algeria was under direct military rule for several years, during which the party remained in opposition to the government during the first part of the war, notably in 1995 signing the Sant'Egidio Platform, which was highly critical of the military establishment. After internal power struggles and a leadership change, it returned to supporting the presidency. After formal democracy was restored, the FLN initially failed to regain its prominent position; in the 1997 parliamentary elections it emerged as the third-largest party, receiving 14% of the vote and winning 69 of the 231 seats. However, it won a landslide victory in the 2002 elections, winning 199 of the 389 seats.
The party nominated Ali Benflis as its candidate for the 2004 presidential elections. He finished as runner-up to the incumbent Abdelaziz Bouteflika, but received only 6.4% of the vote. In 2005, the FLN formed the Presidential Alliance with the National Rally for Democracy (RND) and the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP).
The 2007 parliamentary elections saw the FLN reduced to 163 seats, although the FLN's Abdelaziz Belkhadem remained Prime Minister. Bouteflika was the party's candidate in the 2009 presidential elections, which he won with 90% of the vote.