Tunisia | Police clash with protesters as government under fire

Tunisian police firing rubber bullets and tear gas clashed with mobs protesting surging prices in the capital, as increasingly violent demonstrations test a government struggling to put its finances in order and attract investors.

The continued turmoil yesterday defied calls for calm by Prime Minister Youssef Chahed. Demonstrations broke out last week over tax increases and spending cuts included in the new 2018 budget, claiming the life of one protester. Late Tuesday, demonstrators stormed a branch of the French megastore Carrefour in the capital, looting and trying to set fire to it before authorities stepped in with tear gas.

Clashes erupted elsewhere in the capital and other towns, with protesters blocking roads and throwing stones at police, who responded with rubber bullets, according to Mosaique FM radio. Tunisia’s main opposition party called for continued, more peaceful protests.

The unrest poses one of the most serious challenges to Chahed’s government since its formation in late 2016. The belt-tightening was promised to the International Monetary Fund as its price for the USD2.9 billion loan it extended in 2016 to Tunisia, which is still laboring to revive its economy seven years after the ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the first of the Arab Spring dictators to fall.

The reforms, including subsidy cuts, are hitting hard in a nation where youth unemployment tops 25 percent, about double the national figure. Annual inflation has been steadily rising, reaching 6.4 percent by the end of 2017 compared to 4.2 percent a year earlier.

Since Ben Ali’s ouster, Tunisia has been grappling with political instability and militant attacks that have driven away investors and tourists. The eight governments that have followed have also been under pressure from powerful labor unions demanding that the social justice sought during the 2011 uprising is translated into greater opportunities for the Tunisian people, including higher wages. 

Political unrest in Tunisia has the potential to reverberate outside its borders. The country had the highest number of foreign fighters who joined the Islamic State before the militant movement was routed from Syria and Iraq. It also shares a long and porous border with Libya, where chaos has reigned since dictator Muammar Qaddafi was toppled and killed in 2011. Tarek El-Tablawy, Jihen Laghmari, Bloomberg