President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has declared February 22 a special holiday to honour the peaceful “smile revolution” protest movement that ousted the gas-rich country’s longtime leader last year. 

The country’s communications minister had called for February 22nd to be declared “a national holiday of the blessed Hirak” — the Arabic name for the uprising. 

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika came to power in Algeria in 1999. Bouteflika survived the Arab Spring movement in 2011, by promising constitutional and political reform. He also lifted Algeria’s 19-year-old state of emergency. 

In February 2019, Bouteflika announced he would stand for re-election in the forthcoming Presidential elections. This enraged many Algerians and on February 22nd 2019, over 800,000 demonstrators took to the streets, beginning the Hirak. 

On April 2nd 2019, Bouteflika resigned from the presidency.