10 years on, Tunisians protest government, corruption
The government ordered a total lockdown on Jan. 14. What should have been a celebration of 10 years of democracy turned into a clampdown under the pretext of COVID-19 sanitary measures. The country exploded in angry revolt with running battles with police in the burning nighttime streets of popular neighborhoods across Tunisia.
Jan. 14, 2021, should have been filled with the joyful celebrations of 10 years of democracy following the 2011 popular Jasmine Revolution that ousted President Zine Abedine Ben Ali. Instead, politicians currently in power who benefited from the revolution face the same anger and unrest from the children of that very revolution.
Winter is Tunisia’s traditional season of discontent. As 2021 began, the country was in an ugly mood. The Tunisian economy had shrunk by 9% in 2020, some industries such as tourism have been all but destroyed, while people have had to endure strict enforcement of curfews under the COVID-19 restrictions, rising food costs and unemployment.
In what was seen as a peremptory move to prevent demonstrations, Tunisia’s Health Minister Fouzi Mehdi announced a four-day lockdown on the pretext of COVID-19 sanitary restrictions starting Jan. 14, effectively canceling the 10th anniversary celebrations of Tunisia’s popular revolution.
Determined to demonstrate on Jan. 14, the wounded martyrs of the revolution were not fazed by the lockdown. The families of activists who lost their lives at the hands of the police during the 2011 revolution have been campaigning for the publication of an official and definitive list of revolutionary martyrs and for their deaths to be acknowledged by the state. However, when they arrived at the central avenue of Habib Bourguiba, they were forced back by police.
