"The only thing that seems clear with the arrival of the second anniversary is that - despite the pandemic, repression and internal divisions - the Hirak is still alive," stressed El Pais, adding that the latest measures taken by the government to ease the tension have not had the desired effect.

"The problem is that activists have already seen that this outstretched hand has turned into an iron fist. They don't really trust it," the Spanish publication noted.

For El Pais, "the allegedly outstretched hand of Abdelmadjid Tebboune has so far failed to convince most Algerians", adding that "the high abstention rate in the last elections shows that citizens have had enough of this situation".

The decisions adopted by the regime "do not bring anything new", the same measures were announced a year ago, but they have not been implemented, noted the daily, underlining that the Hirak movement, "has always opposed the calling of legislative elections and calls for the formation of an Assembly to draft a new Constitution".

"More democratic actions are needed on the part of those in power. President Tebboune has already released 76 Hirak detainees on January 2, 2020, during his inauguration. But this has not prevented the power from filling the prisons again and today we have the same number of prisoners of conscience as before," denounced Said Salhi, vice-president of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights, quoted by El Pais.