Eyewitness: Tunisia on the brink as last bastion of Arab Spring faces rebellion

Scottish journalist Claire Herriot reports from the streets of Tunis, where the last remaining government swept to power in the Arab Spring of 2011 fights rebellion.
Protesters on the streets of Tunis stop outside the Central Bank  of TunisiaProtesters on the streets of Tunis stop outside the Central Bank  of Tunisia
Protesters on the streets of Tunis stop outside the Central Bank of Tunisia

Hundreds of protesters marched through central Tunis on Saturday afternoon, after a week of unrest coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the fall of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Demonstrators faced off against police after snaking their way from Tunis’ main thoroughfare, Avenue Bourguiba, stopping on the steps of the headquarters of the Central Bank, and back again.

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Police with riot shields remained impassive as protesters chanted, “Work, Freedom, national dignity” and a man and a woman berated the police up close. At least one person was injured when the crowd surged briefly, away from the police line.

Protesters on the streets of TunisProtesters on the streets of Tunis
Protesters on the streets of Tunis

Tunisia is the only electoral success story from the Arab Spring uprisings, which started in this country a decade ago. But high unemployment, economic stagnation and government corruption have plagued Tunisia’s democracy.

The coronavirus pandemic has battered the tourism industry and a nationwide nighttime curfew, as part of the government’s Covid-19 strategy, has been in place since October.

Many of the protesters on Saturday were young people who would have been children at the time of the 2011 revolution.

Hajer Zairi, a 23 year old student, complained about government ineptitude, saying: “We don’t want another ten years to pass. I don’t want to be 33 and still living in my parents’ house”.

Protesters on the streets of TunisProtesters on the streets of Tunis
Protesters on the streets of Tunis

Hajer and her friend, Ghada Charrad, 20, had brought a copy of the constitution with them to the march, Ghada saying it symbolised their constitutional right to protest peacefully. Both lamented the lack of job opportunities that likely await them when they finish their studies.

‘Media Use in the Middle East 2019’, an annual survey of seven Arab countries by Northwestern University in Qatar found that one in five Tunisians holds a four-year university degree – and that figure has been rising in recent years – but many Tunisians, like many young people elsewhere in the Arab region, learn the hard way that a degree does not necessarily yield a gainful salary. Youth unemployment in Tunisia stands at 30%.

Youth unrest has spread from the capital, Tunis, to the cities of Kasserine, Garda, Sousse and Monastir over the past week. In some of the poorest areas, despair has escalated into violence as crowds pelted police with stones and Molotov cocktails. The police have responded with tear gas.

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Human rights groups say 1,000 people - many of them minors - have been arrested for alleged offences such as vandalism and theft. The Interior Ministry has justified the robust police response as necessary “to protect the physical integrity of citizens and public and private goods.”

Others disagree. Amnesty International has called on Tunisian security forces to “refrain from unnecessary and excessive force to disperse protesters”.

In a televised speech on Tuesday, Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi said he understood popular anger over the economic situation and the frustration of young people, but that violence was not acceptable.

Nour Elhouda Dendani, 29, who joined Saturday’s protest, complains that the government doesn’t have any solutions or a strategy for dealing with the coronavirus, which has now killed more than 6 thousand Tunisians.

A self-described “daughter of the revolution”, she nonetheless says the current economic situation is worse now than under Ben Ali.

But, she adds, “at least I have the freedom to say this”.