Anger is brewing against the backdrop of widespread shortages and high inflation. Thousands of Tunisians demonstrated on Saturday October 15 in Tunis to denounce the policies of the President of the Republic, Kaïs Saïed, in power since 2019, whom they accuse of being responsible for the serious economic crisis affecting the country.
Led by the National Salvation Front, a coalition formed by opposition parties, including the Islamist party Ennahdha, protesters marched through the main streets of the Tunisian capital, calling for the president’s departure. “Go away, go away”, “revolt against Kaïs the dictator”, “the people want to sack the president”chanted the protesters.
Demonstrations in the city center against President Kaïs Saïed and the monopoly of powers. Passing by the trams… https://t.co/aWMaNVt5r7
Inflation has reached almost 9% over one year
Tunisia is strangled by a debt exceeding 100% of its GDP and unable to borrow on international markets. According to a press release from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released on Saturday, an agreement has been reached with the government, which will allow the release of a payment of 1.9 billion dollars. The agreement still needs to be validated by the Fund’s Board of Directors.
In exchange for this disbursement, the Tunisian government has committed to a program of reforms. It includes in particular the taxation of the informal economy, support measures for the most modest, as well as a strengthening of transparency within the public sector.
The financial crisis has resulted in recent months in recurring commodity shortages (flour, sugar, coffee, for example) in a context of galloping inflation, while the latter reached nearly 9% in August, over one year.
The difficulties of the country, which has been in economic decline for ten years, have been amplified by the Covid-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine, which has made imports of cereals and hydrocarbons, on which it is very dependent, more expensive.
Home to the outbreak of the Arab Spring in 2011, Tunisia has also been mired in a serious political crisis since the coup by President Kaïs Saïed, who seized full powers in July 2021 and who carried out a constitutional reform for the strengthen, adopted without fervor by referendum in the summer of 2022.
“This demonstration reflects anger at the situation in Tunisia under Kaïs Saïed and calls for his departure”former Prime Minister Ali Larayedh, vice-president of Ennahdha, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “If the current political power persists, there is no future for Tunisia. Poverty, unemployment and despair are on the rise”he added.
At the same time, another demonstration against the deterioration of living conditions also took place on Saturday in Tunis, organized by the Free Destourian Party (PDL), an anti-Islamist opposition formation. The participants in this demonstration brandished empty baskets in reference to the sharp drop in purchasing power.
About 1,500 people took part in the demonstration organized by the National Salvation Front, while that led by the PDL brought together nearly 1,000 demonstrators, the Tunisian interior ministry told AFP.
Major fuel supply disruptions
The country has also been experiencing major disruptions in fuel distribution for several weeks. Queues, reaching hundreds of meters in length, formed on Thursday in front of several gas stations in Tunis, AFP journalists noted on Thursday.
The supply of the stations continues “in a normal way”authorities said, however, blaming the disruption on a ” rush “ motorists who fill their tanks unusually.
“It is true that there are supply problems by ship… but the product is available”said the Minister of Energy, Neila Nouira Gongi, referring to ” financial difficulties “ public companies to pay for fuel imports. “Before, the suppliers gave us a month or two to pay our invoices, this is no longer the case today. Suppliers do not unload their cargo until the previous ones have been paid”she explained.