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Hundreds attend anti-austerity protests in Tunis amid heavy police presence Thousands flood Tunis centre to celebrate anniversary of revolution
(about 3 hours later)
Hundreds of Tunisians have demonstrated peacefully in the capital against government austerity measures on the seventh anniversary of the ousting of the former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, following a week of unrest in which hundreds of people have been arrested. Thousands of Tunisians flooded into the centre of Tunis on Sunday to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the revolution that ousted former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, and cap a week of protests against the government they say now threatens its legacy.
Protests erupted last Monday in several towns and cities across Tunisia, triggered by tax and price increases imposed on 1 January as the government seeks to reduce a budget deficit to meet an agreement with its international donors. As crowds gathered downtown, president Beji Caid Essebsi made an unprecedented visit to one of the capital’s most deprived suburbs to launch a package of social reforms aimed at quelling popular anger.
More than 800 people have been arrested for vandalism and acts of violence, including throwing petrol bombs at police stations, according to the interior ministry. For a week, swathes of Tunisia have been wracked by mass protests that have often turned violent after dark, sparked by a harsh new budget, which pushes up the prices of necessities. At least one person has been killed, dozens injured and around 800 people detained, the interior ministry said.
The government late on Saturday pledged extra aid for poor families in response to the demonstrations, but protesters still took to the streets, holding banners with slogans against rising prices and new taxes. The government said the price hikes and tax raises were necessary to balance the books, and meet terms demanded by an IMF loan that is helping keep the country afloat.
The social affairs minister, Mohamed Trabelsi, announced on Saturday that monthly aid to needy families would rise from 150 dinars (£45) to between 180 and 210 dinars. But for Tunisians frustrated by years of economic stagnation, made worse after terror attacks in 2015 decimated the vital tourism industry, the prospect of more expensive food, fuel, internet and other goods was enough to send many back into the streets.
He also said reforms that have been in the pipeline for months would guarantee medical care for all Tunisians and also provide housing to disadvantaged families. Seven years after dictator Ben Ali fled abroad, the country has cycled through six governments, and too many of its citizens have seen no sign of the hoped-for transformation in the economy, and their lives.
“This will concern about 250,000 families,” he said. “It will help the poor and middle class.” “Tunisia is at a crossroads,” said Messaoud Romdhani, veteran campaigner against Ben Ali, and president of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights. “We need to keep the pressure up, most of our social and economic rights have not been delivered.”
The announcement came after the president, Beji Caid Essebsi, consulted with political parties, unions and employers. At the opening of his consultations, Essebsi accused the foreign press of amplifying the social unrest and damaging the country’s image in its coverage of protests. The country could either become a beacon for a struggling region – if the government can correct its course – or slip into the chaos that has engulfed Syria, Libya and others, he warned.
The president said he would visit a disadvantaged neighbourhood of Tunis that had been the scene of street protests. “The key word of the revolution is dignity and people still feel the government doesn’t see their problems. They think they have been neglected on purpose.”
One rally took place in front of the labour union (UGTT) headquarters and other protests were held along the central Habib Bourguiba Avenue, to which hundreds of riot police had been deployed. Tunisia, the country where the 2011 Arab spring began, is its one remaining bright spot. Other countries around the region where dictatorships were overthrown have since plunged into civil war, or are once more under autocratic control.
“This is what the government has done to us,” said a protester named Fouad. “Pockets are empty by unfair decisions of the government … I am a professor and my wife is a teacher, but we are suffering today to meet what we need.” Many in central Tunis’ leafy Habib Bourguiba avenue said they had turned out simply to celebrate that. “I’m here for Tunisia and freedom,” said 50-year-old Chadia Zneida, who had to make a 10-hour round trip to join the crowds in the capital. “We have freedom of speech, to talk, and the rest will gradually come.”
“We have only won freedom of expression after the 2011 revolution … but we will remain in the streets until we win our economic rights just as we have our freedom,” he added. There were also many children among those waving flags, singing and dancing, their parents unconcerned by violence at previous protests, representing the first generation for whom the revolution is just another piece of history.
Police sought to separate supporters of the opposition Popular Front party and the Islamist Ennahda party, which is part of the ruling coalition. The government and Ennahda accuse the PF of being behind some of last week’s violence. “Those who didn’t come today will regret it,” said 13-year-old Ala Meddeb, joining the rally with her sister Eya and her father.
Prices have increased for fuel and some consumer goods, while taxes on cars, phone calls, the internet, hotel accommodation and other items have also gone up. Teenagers now, the high school students were only six and eight when Ben Ali fled, and say they have no memories of his rule or departure, but still wanted to celebrate the revolution. “Even if I don’t remember, I heard life was difficult before, and there was torture.”
Tunisia has been hailed as the only democratic success of the Arab spring: the one Arab country to topple a long-serving leader in 2011’s uprisings without triggering widespread violence or civil war. But there was also anger, mostly at the feeble state of the economy, corruption and persistent unemployment. “The revolution had three slogans: “Freedom, employment, dignity,” said activist Haitham Guesmi. “We succeeded in winning freedom, of speech, assembly, to protest etc. But we are still looking for employment and dignity.”
Tunisia has had nine governments since Ben Ali’s overthrow, none of which has been able to resolve deep-rooted economic problems. The economy has worsened since the vital tourism sector was nearly wiped out by a wave of deadly militant attacks in 2015, and has yet to recover despite improved security. Union activists marching past chanted: “The government tricked people.” Among them was 40-year-old Muhammed Ali, a factory worker marching with hundreds of other trade union members.
The week of demonstrations broke out before Sunday’s seventh anniversary of the toppling of Ben Ali in a revolt that sparked uprisings across the Arab region. He works at a tyre company that was privatised for what he says was a token amount, in an outrageous act of crony capitalism. Around 900 of its 1,500 workers have been on strike since last summer. “My problem is not the revolution, it’s the government.”
A man in his 40s died during unrest on Monday night in the northern town of Tebourba, though police have insisted they did not kill him. Issam, a 30-year-old military technician, enjoying a coffee at the edge of the protests, didn’t agree. Tunisia had paid too high a price for democracy, he claimed.
The interior ministry spokesman Khlifa Chibani on Saturday said 803 people suspected of taking part in acts of violence, theft and looting had been arrested this week. “Ben Ali’s time was better,” he said with a shrug, adding that if he was forced to choose now, he would have stuck with the old regime. “As a president, as a system, I didn’t like it, but talking just about the economy, in his time it was better.”
Essebsi’s Sunday visit to a youth centre in the working-class Tunis suburb of Ettadhamen, which last week saw clashes between young protesters and police, was an attempt to tackle this discontent. He handed out loans to young people and announced improved aid for the poor and healthcare provisions.
It was first time in his 92 years that he had made a trip to the working-class neighbourhood that proudly describes itself as the heart of the revolution. It is also often at the heart of violence.
The visit produced good television footage, but left behind a wave of cynicism. “Its all just like the cinema, for show,” said one father, pointing to a climbing frame uprooted from the mud of a newly opened playground just a couple of hours after he left, now lying toppled on its side.
Just a couple of blocks away, young men apparently high on hashish stared at a new street lamp installed two days before the president’s visit. “This isn’t the real Ettadhamen, they have been cleaning up for a week,” said one with a smile.
Students from the area allowed inside the centre after the president’s visit said it was crammed, full of exciting equipment, like playstations and a cinema, but wondered if they would be let in again.
“When he came, he didn’t speak to us, he spoke to the cameras. He is scared of Ettadhamen,” said 17-year-old Feres who had broken off from a last minute exam revision to go and see the president.
“We tried to talk to him and the policemen insulted us. Tunisia is our country, but this is not our government. We lie here in poverty, and they despise us.”