The Tunisian Prime Minister acknowledged, Tuesday evening, the legitimacy of the anger of Tunisians, who demonstrated for the sixth consecutive night, in order to demand “the fall of the regime”.
Violent clashes between demonstrators and the police broke out on Tuesday January 19 for a sixth consecutive night in several Tunisian cities, including the capital Tunis and Sidi Bouzid, cradle of the “jasmine revolution”. Faced with the frustration of the growing population in the midst of the economic crisis, Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi assured that this anger was “legitimate”.
“The crisis is real and the anger is legitimate and the protests too, but the violence is unacceptable and we will face it with the force of the law”, reacted the Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi during a televised speech Tuesday evening.
“Your voice is heard and the role of the government is to turn your demands into reality,” he added, but the right to protest “must not turn into the right to loot, steal or break”.
Earlier, the demonstrators gathered in Tunis resumed the songs sung ten years earlier to oust the autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from power, chanting: “The people want the fall of the regime”.
In Sidi Bouzid, police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, witnesses told Reuters. Clashes erupted in disadvantaged areas of Tunis, where hundreds of angry young protesters set tires on fire and blocked roads.
“Despair has spread”
During the day, protesters notably demanded the creation of jobs, while the health restrictions imposed in the face of the coronavirus have further deepened the economic malaise.
“Despair has become widespread. The virus is added to poverty and unemployment. Ten years later (the revolution, editor’s note), our demands are not materializing”, lamented to AFP Donia Mejri, 21 years old , student in human sciences.
“We do not want to destroy or steal. We want our rights, and we will not stop until this government leaves,” civil society member Ghazi Tayari told AFP.
