Louisa Hanoune

Louisa Hanoune (

Following the

She is known for denouncing the dissolution of the Islamic Salvation Front, being outspoken in favor of reconciliation, and—along with other parties—signing the Sant'Egidio platform "for a political solution to the Algerian crisis". During the period of newly-independent Algeria, Hanoune formed her political ideals: "The whole country was still pulsing from the war of liberation, everybody was talking about socialism, of justice, of progress. Algeria was at the height of its anti-imperialist battle... we were completely united with the Palestinians, their cause was also ours. We were against apartheid in South Africa, we talked about Vietnam, I grew up like all my generation in this militant atmosphere, of struggle."

Hanounes first bid for the 1999 presidential election was rejected by the Constitutional Council.

In the 2004 presidential election she however became the first female candidate in the entire Arab world to run for president. Only six candidates were recognized by the constitutional council.^[4]

Hanoune was one of eleven candidates who nominated^[5] for the 2009 presidential election. Her platform included defending the principle of national sovereignty and denouncing the policy of liberalization and privatization of public enterprises. She won 4.22% of the vote, coming second out of six candidates, as President Abdelaziz Bouteflika won a third term with 90.24% of the votes cast in an election which was denounced as fraudulent.^[6]

In the 2014 presidential election, she finished fourth receiving only 1.37% of the votes. In the party's press conference she accepted the defeat and insisted that the elections were carried through in a correct way and this time without any fraud. "Bouteflika has won, people have chosen stability," she said.^[7]

In July 2024, Louisa Hanoune announced the withdrawal of her candidacy and criticized the “unjust conditions” in which the campaign was taking place.^[8] accusing the Algerian regime of intending to exclude her and prevent free candidacy without clarifying those details, Hanoune criticized the National Independent Authority for Elections for its failure to manage the signature collection process. She pointed to a lack of technical equipment and intimidation by municipal employees.^[9][10]

At the international level, Hanoune was a founding member of the International Workers and Peoples in January 1991. She has participated as a representative of PT conferences against privatization and for the defense of trade union organizations and campaigned for workplace standards. She is a committee member of the women workers and of the Africa Committee of the International Workers. She was involved with a coalition of unions that spoke out against the war in Iraq, including the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions and the International Confederation of Workers (EIT).

In March 2010, Hanoune joined other women's-rights activists in calling for repeal of Algeria's Family Code on grounds of its failure to provide adequate protection for females.^[11]

In February 2011, she criticised a 12 February anti-Bouteflika demonstration in Algiers as social manipulation—"trying to manipulate the social discontent, which is real, to divert it in the service of imperialism"—and prescribed

a clean break with the European Union, the repeal of all the concessions made to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and [a] return to full economic sovereignty.^[12]

She noted that the demonstration had been supported by former prime minister and International Monetary Fund/World Bank consultant Ahmed Benbitour. Her editorial message called on "activists, members and supporters to form popular committees ... to establish their demands through free discussion, and [press for] exclusively national, Algerian solutions".

In September 2019, Hanoune was imprisoned for political reasons by the then-interim Algerian military regime. At the beginning of 2020, after a judicial appeal, her sentence was reduced and she is now free.