Tunisia – The Tunisian Revolution is celebrated this January 14, 2023, as for every year, such a symbolic date in popular memory, marking the fall of the former regime of Ben Ali which lasted more than 23 years.
Tunisia: A revolution celebrated under high tension
Opponents of the current regime have called for mobilization to celebrate the anniversary date of the Tunisian Revolution on January 14, 2023, although the President of the Republic, Kais Saied, decreed last year as a public holiday to celebrate this event.
It must be said that the Revolution is now affecting President Kais Saïd with these demonstrations. Supporters of the National Salvation Front organized a protest march this Saturday in Tunis, the capital, to demand the “departure” of President Kais Saïed and to defend freedom and democracy, according to our colleague from the Anadolu Agency.
The Front comprises 5 parties, Ennahda, Qalb Tounes, the Al-Karama Coalition, Hirak Tounes Al-Irada, and Amal, the campaign against the coup, as well as a certain number of members of the dissolved parliament. Still, according to the same source, the demonstrators chanted various slogans such as “(Saïed) get out”, “Revolution, revolution until victory” and “No to the arrest of political figures”. It should be noted that these demonstrations are made against a background of inflation at more than 10%.
Increasingly poor Tunisians want to redo their revolution
Weariness and anger are gaining more and more Tunisians where 20% are languishing in poverty. They are thus angry with their president for his policy of monopolizing full powers. Tunisia has been going through a serious political crisis since July 25, 2021, when Saïed imposed exceptional measures, in particular the dissolution of the Superior Council of the Judiciary and of Parliament, the promulgation of laws by presidential decrees, the adoption of a new Constitution by referendum in July 2022 and the holding of early legislative elections last December.
The majority of political and civil forces in Tunisia reject these measures and consider them a “coup against the Constitution” while other forces support them and see them as a “correction of the course of the 2011 revolution”, which overthrew the regime of President Ben Ali. Still, the demonstrators decided to take to the streets to shout their fed up while accusing the state of being responsible for the high cost of living and the abusive treatment inflicted on the people.
