National Liberation Front (Algeria)

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National Liberation Front
جبهة التحرير الوطني
fr name Front de Libération Nationale
Abbreviation FLN
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Secretary-General Djamel Ould Abbes
Founded 1 November 1954; 62 years ago (1954-11-01)
Preceded by CRUA
Headquarters Algiers
Militant wing National Liberation Army
Ideology Algerian nationalism
Arab nationalism
Democratic socialism
Social democracy
Political position Centre-left
International affiliation Socialist International (consultative)
Colors              Red, green and white
People's National Assembly
208 / 462
Council of the Nation
40 / 144
Party flag
Variant flag of the GPRA (1958-1962).svg

The National Liberation Front (Arabic: جبهة التحرير الوطني‎‎ Jabhatu l-Taḥrīru l-Waṭanī; French: Front de Libération Nationale, FLN) is a socialist political party in Algeria. It was the principal nationalist movement during the Algerian War and the sole legal and the ruling political party of the Algerian state until other parties were legalised in 1989.[1]


Colonial era[edit]

The FLN was established in 1954[2] after a split in the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties, and was formed largely by former members of the Special Organisation paramilitary group who were in hiding.[3] It succeeded the Revolutionary Committee of Unity and Action (CRUA), which had been formed earlier in the year.[3] 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.[3]

On 1 November 1954 the FLN launched the Algerian War.[3] 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.[3] By 1956 nearly all the nationalist organizations in Algeria had joined the FLN, which had established itself as the main nationalist group through both 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.[4]

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 Berber 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 during and after the war for independence[edit]

FLN is considered responsible for over 16,000 Algerian civilians killed and over 13,000 disappeared between 1954 and 1962.[5] After the ceasefire of 19 March 1962, FLN is thought to have massacred between 60,000 and 70,000 harkis: Muslim Algerians who had served in the French army and whom the French, contrary to promises given, had denied a "repatriation" to France.[6][7]


Independence and one-party state[edit]

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 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.



Multi-party era[edit]

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 over half the local councils; the FLN received just over a quarter of the vote, retaining control of a similar number of councils. Parliamentary elections the following year saw the ISF win a landslide victory, taking 188 of the 231 seats, whilst the FLN won only 15, finishing in third place behind the Socialist Forces Front. However, this was followed shortly afterwards by a military coup d'état against the weakened FLN government, 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. 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.

The FLN remained the largest party following the 2012 parliamentary elections, winning 208 of the 462 seats. Bouteflika was re-elected on the FLN ticket in the 2014 presidential elections with 82% of the vote. The elderly and ailing Bouteflika is widely seen as a mere frontman for what has often described as a "shadowy" group of generals and intelligence officers known to the Algerians collectively as le pouvoir (“the power”) and whose individual members are called décideurs with The Economist writing in 2012 "The most powerful man in the land may be Mohamed Mediène, known as Toufiq who has headed military intelligence for two decades".[8] General Mohamed Mediène, the chief of military intelligence from 1990 to 2015 is known to be a leading décideur within le pouvior and for his secrecy with The Economist reporting on 21 September 2013: "Despite his leading role in defeating Islamic militants in a brutal civil war between 1991 and 2000, and his less public role as kingmaker in the pouvoir, General Mediene’s face remains unknown; it is said that anyone who has seen it expires soon after."[9]




The organization committed itself to socialism, but understood this along the lines of Arab socialism, and opposed doctrinaire Marxism. The existence of different classes in Algerian society was generally rejected, even if several of the party's top ideologues were influenced to varying degrees by Marxist analysis. Borrowed Marxist terminology was instead commonly reinterpreted by party radicals in terms of the conflict with France, e.g. casting the colonizer in the role of economic exploiter-oppressor as well as national enemy, while the label of "bourgeoisie" was applied to uncooperative or pro-French elites. The FLN did for pragmatic reasons absorb communist activists into its ranks during the War of Independence, but refused to allow them to organize separately after the war, and quickly moved to dissolve the pro-Moscow Algerian Communist Party (PCA). This proved of little significance, however, since independent Algeria was set up as a one-party system under the FLN soon thereafter. Many communist intellectuals were later co-opted into the regime at various stages, notably during the early Ben Bella and late Boumédiènne years, but the FLN ban on a communist party and refusal to accept Marxism remained in place.



The FLN was admitted into Socialist International (SI) as a consultative member at the SI's spring congress on 4–5 February 2013.[10]

Further reading[edit]


See also[edit]


  1. ^ Europa World Year Book 2014, p565
  2. ^ "The Multi-Party System in Algeria" (PDF). Yale University. Retrieved 7 May 2016. 
  3. ^ a b c d e Frank Tachau (1994) Political parties of the Middle East and North Africa, Greenwood Press, p31
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ (French) 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.
  7. ^ a b Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954–1962 (1977).
  8. ^ "Still Waiting for Real Democracy". The Economist. 12 May 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2016. 
  9. ^ "The dead live longer". The Economist. 21 September 2013. Retrieved 2016-31-16.  Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  10. ^ Decisions of the Council Socialist International

External links[edit]