The Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic ( ar, الحكومة المؤقتة للجمهورية الجزائرية, ;

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

: ''Gouvernement provisoire de la République algérienne'') was the

government-in-exile A government in exile (abbreviated as GiE) is a political group that claims to be a country or semi-sovereign state's legitimate government, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile ...

of the

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

n National Liberation Front (FLN) during the latter part of the

Algerian War of Independence The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...

(1954–62).

Creation and purpose

The GPRA was set up in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

, by the FLN on September 19, 1958, four years into the

. Its first

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

was the moderate nationalist Ferhat Abbas, who had for decades insisted on trying to peacefully reform the

colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

system, before finally despairing and joining the FLN's armed struggle. He was once re-elected to the post, in 1960, but as early as the following year he was sidelined and replaced by

Benyoucef Benkhedda Benyoucef Benkhedda ( ar, بن يوسف بن خدة; February 23, 1920 – February 4, 2003) was an Algerian politician. He headed the third GPRA exile government of the National Liberation Front (FLN), acting as a leader during the Algerian W ...

, who held the presidency as Algeria was declared independent. The purpose of the GPRA was to serve as a diplomatic and political tool for the FLN. It allowed sympathetic governments to extend official recognition to it (among those that did were neighbouring

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...

and

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

, as well as

Nasserite Nasserism ( ) is an Arab nationalist and Arab socialist political ideology based on the thinking of Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the two principal leaders of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and Egypt's second President. Spanning the domestic a ...

, other

Arab countries The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western As ...

, and Pakistan). Its headquarters were located in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

, but

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or interna ...

s were posted in most major world capitals to try to lobby governments and organize local support groups. It was partly intended to serve as a preemptive diplomatic strike against a proposal by

French President The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (french: Président de la République française), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency is ...

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Governm ...

to hold a

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a Representative democr ...

by which Algeria would be given an

autonomous In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ow ...

status within France.

Post-independence dissolution

After the war, infighting broke out in FLN ranks. Benkhedda of the GPRA briefly held power in Algiers, but there was no unified power for the whole country. In late 1962, the GPRA was disbanded, after

Ahmed Ben Bella Ahmed Ben Bella ( ar, أحمد بن بلّة '; 25 December 1916 – 11 April 2012) was an Algerian politician, soldier and socialist revolutionary who served as the head of government of Algeria from 27 September 1962 to 15 September 1963 ...

seized power through forming a rival institution (a

Political Bureau A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...

of the FLN) with the backing of the

Armée de Libération Nationale The National Liberation Army or ALN ( ar, جيش التحرير الوطني الجزائري, translit=Jaīš al-taḥrīr al-waṭanī al-jazāʾirī; french: Armée de libération nationale) was the armed wing of the nationalist National Libe ...

(ALN), controlled by Col.

Houari Boumédiène Houari Boumédiène ( ar, ; ALA-LC: ''Hawwārī Būmadyan''; born Mohammed Ben Brahim Boukherouba; 23 August 1932 – 27 December 1978) was an Algerian politician and army colonel who served as Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of Al ...

. An attempt by GPRA politicians and loyal guerrilla units to resist the military-backed takeover was crushed in a short but intense burst of internal fighting. A compromise forced by Boumédiène saw most of the provisional government enter an expanded Political Bureau, and the GPRA itself was dissolved. A

one-party state A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other partie ...

under Ben Bella's command was then set up, after a

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these pr ...

had been approved for the new republic. While some argue that this broke the institutional continuity between the war-time GPRA and the present Algerian state, the Algerian presidency and government is still normally regarded as the GPRA's post-

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the stat ...

successor.

List of members of the GPRA

The GPRA was reformed twice, in 1960 and 1961, with the change of ministers and portfolios to some extent reflecting the shifts of power within the FLN. Below is a list of the three versions of the GPRA.Private web site
Algerian History
/ref>

The first GPRA: 1958–60

* Mr Ferhat Abbas – President * Mr

Krim Belkacem Krim Belkacem ( ar, عبد الكريم بلقاسم or ) (September 14, 1922, Aït Yahia Moussa, Tizi Ouzou Province – October 18, 1970) was the historic leader of the National Liberation Front during the Algerian War. As vice-president of ...

– Vice President and Minister of the Armed Forces * Mr

– Vice President * Mr

Hocine Aït Ahmed Hocine Aït Ahmed ( ar, حسين آيت أحمد‎; 20 August 1926 – 23 December 2015) was an Algerian politician. He was founder and leader until 2009 of the historical political opposition in Algeria. Life Aït Ahmed was born at Aï ...

– Vice President * Mr

Rabah Bitat Rabah Bitat ( ar, رابح بيطاط; ALA-LC: ''Rābaḥ Bīṭāṭ''; 19 December 1925 in Aïn Kerma – 10 April 2000) was an Algerian Nationalist and politician. He served as interim President of Algeria from 1978 to 1979, after Houari ...

– Vice President * Mr Mohamed Boudiaf – Minister of State * Mr

Mohamed Khider Muhammad was an Islamic prophet and a religious and political leader who preached and established Islam. Muhammad and variations may also refer to: *Muhammad (name), a given name and surname, and list of people with the name and its variations ...

– Minister of State * Mr

Mohamed Lamine Debaghine Dr. Mohamed Lamine Debaghine (24 January 1917 in Hussein Dey, Algeria; – 23 January 2003 in Algiers, Algeria) was an Algerian politician and independence activist. Biography Mohamed Lamine Debaghine, holding a doctorate of medicine from Alg ...

– Minister of Foreign Affairs * Mr Mahmoud Cherif – Minister of Armaments and Provisions * Mr

Lakhdar Ben Tobbal Slimane Bentebal (1923, Mila, Algeria – 21 August 2010), better known as Lakhdar Bentobal, is a former Algerian resistance fighter. Biography Lakhdar Bentobal was a member of the nationalist Parti du peuple Algérien (PPA), and later moved ...

– Minister of the Interior * Mr

Abdelhafid Boussouf Abdelhafid Boussouf ( ar, عبد الحفيظ بوصوف; 17 August 1926, Mila, Algeria – 31 December 1980 Paris, France) was an Algerian nationalist and a leader of the Front de libération nationale (FLN) during the Algerian War of Indepe ...

– Minister of General Relations and Communications * Mr

Abdelhamid Mehri Abdelhamid Mehri (April 1926 – 30 January 2012) was an Algerian resistance fighter, soldier and politician.Rabah Beldjenna, Abdelhamid Mehri est décédé lundi à Alger, ''El Watan'', 30 January 2012 Born into a destitute family in Constant ...

– Minister of

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...

Affairs * Mr

Ahmed Francis Ahmed Francis (12 November 1910 – 31 August 1968) was an Algerian politician and nationalist, born in Relizane in a family originally from Miliana. After studying medicine in Paris, France, where he got his doctorate in 1939, Ahmed retu ...

– Minister of Economic and Financial Affairs * Mr

Mhamed Yazid Mhamed Yazid (born in Blida, 1923–2003) was an Algerian independence activist and politician. He joined the nationalist Parti du Peuple Algérien (PPA) in 1942, and later, after moving to Paris, France for university studies, joined its successo ...

– Minister of Information * Mr

– Minister of Social Affairs * Mr Ahmed Tewfik El Madani – Minister of Cultural Affairs * Mr

Lamine Khene Lamine Abderrahman Khene (6 March 1931 – 14 December 2020), was an Algerian nationalist politician and officer. Life At age 16, he joined the Parti du peuple algérien The Algerian People's Party (in French, Parti du Peuple Algerien PPA), was ...

– Secretary of State * Mr Omar Oussedik – Secretary of State * Mr Mustapha Stambouli

The second GPRA: 1960–61

* Mr Ferhat Abbas – President * Mr

– Vice President, and Minister of Foreign Affairs * Mr

– Vice President * Mr

– Vice President * Mr Mohamed Boudiaf – Minister of State * Mr

– Minister of State * Mr

Saïd Mohammedi Colonel Saïd Mohammedi ( ar, السعيد محمدي; 27 December 1912 – 6 December 1994), or Si Nacer, was an Algerian nationalist and politician. Early life and collaborationism Born in the Berber Kabyle region of Tizi Ouzou, Saïd ...

– Minister of State * Mr

– Minister of Social and Cultural Affairs * Mr

– Minister of Armaments and of General Relations * Mr

– Minister of Economic and Financial Affairs * Mr

– Minister of Information * Mr

– Minister of the Interior

The third GPRA: 1961–62

* Mr

– President, and Minister of Economic and Financial Affairs * Mr

– Vice President, Minister of the Interior of Foreign Affairs * Mr

– Vice President * Mr Mohamed Boudiaf – Vice President * Mr

– Minister of State * Mr

Saad Dahlab Saad Dahlab (b. in Ksar Chellala, April 18, 1918 - d. December 16, 2000 in Algiers) was an Algerian nationalist and politician. A long-time national activist, he played a part in virtually all the early Algerian nationalist movements: L'Étoile ...

– Minister of Foreign Affairs * Mr

– Minister of Armamaments and of General Relations * Mr

– Minister of Information

References

Literature

* Achour Cheurfi, ''La classe politique algérienne, de 1900 à nos jours. Dictionnaire biographique'' (Casbah Editions, 2nd edition,

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques d ...

2006) * Jacques Duchemin, ''Histoire du F. L. N.'' (Editions Mimouni,

2006) *

Benjamin Stora Benjamin Stora (born 2 December 1950) is a French historian, expert on North Africa, who is widely considered one of the world's leading authorities on Algerian history. He was born in a Jewish family that left the country following its War of ...

, ''Algeria. 1830-2000. A Short History'' (

Cornell University Press The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University; currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, making it the first university publishing enterprise in ...

, United States 2004) *

Alistair Horne Sir Alistair Allan Horne (9 November 1925 – 25 May 2017) was a British journalist, biographer and historian of Europe, especially of 19th- and 20th-century France. He wrote more than 20 books on travel, history, and biography. Early life, ...

, ''A Savage War of Peace. Algeria 1954-1962'' (Viking 1978) {{Authority control Algerian War

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

* Separatism in Algeria Separatism in France Algeria–Egypt relations National Liberation Front (Algeria)