National Liberation Front (Algeria)

The National Liberation Front (Arabic: جبهة التحرير الوطني, romanized: Jabhat at-Taḥrīr al-Waṭanī; French: Front de libération nationale), 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.

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. 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. 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.

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. The underrepresentation combined with the unfair election in 1948 limited the MTDL's ability to gain further political power.