Tag: Tunisia
The Tunisian revolution seven years on
Thirty years last November Zine el Abidine Ben Ali assumed power in Tunisia ending thereby the rule of ailing Habib Bourguiba who ruled the country since its independence in 1956. Ben Ali promised political reforms that lured large segments of the...
Tunisia: How long will the Essebsi-Ghanouchi Consensus hold?
During the previous week, President Beji Caid Essebsi delivered an hour-long speech in which he threatened to use the army to break up the protests in Tataouine and at the oil production facilities in El Kamour. The sit-ins had been...
Tunisia: The Labour Union and the Chahed Government
The standoff between the UGTT union and the government has reached a nerve-racking stage. The union of teachers is demanding the departure of Neji Jalloul, the minister of education, in retaliation for the sanctions he imposed on teachers who went...
Tunisia: Six Years on, the Revolution is Still Underway
Six years on the political, social and intellectual dynamics unleashed in Sidi Bouzid, on 17 December 2011, are still underway in Tunisia. This year’s celebrations of the 14 January anniversary of the ousting of former president Ben Ali were marked...
Tunisia: More Continuity than Change within the UGTT
Tunisia’s labour union UGTT elected Noureddine Taboubi secretary general of its executive bureau during its 23rd congress, held on 22-25 January. Observers expect more continuity than change in the union’s policy given that most of the members of the outgoing...
Tunisia Dares to Confront its Sordid Past
Two weeks ago Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission, a constitutionally enacted body, began a series of public hearings of victims of violations of human rights since Tunisia’s independence, sixty years ago. The hearings that have been broadcast live on local...
Tunisia’s Delicate Balancing Act with Saudi Arabia
Two months only after his appointment as minister of religious affairs Abdeljalil Ben Salem was dismissed following a polemic at a hearing at the Tunisian parliament. Answering a question from a leftist Popular Front MP about Wahhabism and its links...
Leadership Struggles Further Weaken Tunisia’s Modernist Parties
The saga of splits, defections, resignations and below-the-belt hits is showing no sign of abating within Tunisia’s so-called modernist political parties. Indeed, the crisis within Nida Tounes has hit a new low with the freezing of the activities of the...