National Liberation Front (Algeria)
알제리 민족해방전선
A nationalist party in Algeria. Founded in 1954, it led the Algerian War of independence against France until 1962, and after independence it was the sole legal ruling party until other parties were legalised in 1989. It has remained a leading party in Algerian politics under the multi-party system.
In depth
The FLN was formed in succession to the Revolutionary Committee of Unity and Action (CRUA), set up in 1954 by veterans of the Special Organisation, the paramilitary wing of the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties (MTLD). The founding date is 10 October in the English-language source and 23 October in the French-language source. On 1 November it issued the Declaration of 1 November and began the armed struggle, and by 1956 it had absorbed nearly all nationalist organisations except Messali Hadj's Algerian National Movement (MNA). According to the French-language source, the Soummam Congress of August 1956, organised mainly by Abane Ramdane, proclaimed the "primacy of the political over the military", and in 1958 the front formed a provisional government (GPRA). Its armed wing was the National Liberation Army (ALN).
The war caused between 300,000 and 1.5 million deaths. The English-language source holds the FLN responsible for over 16,000 civilians killed and over 13,000 disappeared between 1954 and 1962, and states that after the ceasefire of 19 March 1962 it is thought to have massacred thousands of harkis. Independence followed the Évian Accords of 1962 and a referendum in July; the front outlawed the MNA and communist organisations and established a one-party state. Frantz Fanon was an FLN member and influenced its ideology during the independence struggle.
Immediately after independence Ahmed Ben Bella took power with the backing of Houari Boumédiène's border army, but in 1965 Boumédiène overthrew him in a coup. Boumédiène kept the one-party system but ruled by decree and "revolutionary legitimacy", marginalising the party. After his death in 1978 the party was reorganised under Chadli Bendjedid, and in the 1980s it toned down the socialist content of its programme. After the riots of October 1988 the constitution was amended to allow a multi-party system.
The FLN was heavily defeated by the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in the 1990 local elections, and in the first round of the 1991 parliamentary elections the FIS won 188 of 231 seats against 16 for the FLN. A military coup in January 1992 cancelled the elections, and civil war followed. The FLN came only third in the 1997 election but won a landslide in 2002 with 199 of 389 seats, and Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected president as its candidate in 2009 and 2014. According to the French-language source, the party was expelled from the Socialist International during the 2019 protests.