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Sep
25
2021
By The African Mirror
Tunisia labour union rejects Saied power grab, widening opposition

Tunisia labour union rejects Saied power grab, widening opposition

NEWS
TAREK AMARA and ANGUS McDOWALL TUNIASIA’S influential labour union has rejected key elements of President Kais Saied's seizure of near total power and warned of a threat to democracy as opposition widened against a move his foes call a coup. Saied this week brushed aside much of the 2014 constitution, giving himself power to rule by decree two months after he sacked the prime minister, suspended parliament and assumed executive authority. The crisis has endangered the democratic gains that Tunisians won in a 2011 revolution that triggered the "Arab spring" protests and has also slowed efforts to tackle an urgent…
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Sep
13
2021
By The African Mirror
Tunisia’s President prepares to amend constitution

Tunisia’s President prepares to amend constitution

NEWS
TAREK AMARA and ANGUS McDOWALL TUNISIA’S President Kais Saied has indicated he was preparing to change the country's constitution but said he would only do so using existing constitutional means, seven weeks after he seized powers in moves his foes called a coup. The comments represented his clearest statement yet about what he intends to do next, having sworn there was "no going back" to the situation in the North African nation before his intervention on July 25. Speaking live on television in a central Tunis boulevard, Saied said he respected the 2014 democratic constitution but that it was not…
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Jan
31
2021
By The African Mirror
Hundreds of Tunisians protest about police abuse

Hundreds of Tunisians protest about police abuse

NEWS
HUNDREDS of Tunisians marched in the capital yesterday to protest against police abuses they say are endangering freedoms won in the 2011 revolution that swept away authoritarian rule. Hundreds of riot police confronted the demonstrators, leading to scuffles. Some protesters threw bottles, while police struck some demonstrators with batons. There have been near daily protests since the mid-January, the anniversary of Tunisia's revolution that sparked uprisings across the region in 2011, known as the Arab Spring. Tunisia was the only Arab state to emerge with a democratic system in place. Amid sporadic clashes, police have arrested more than a thousand…
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Jan
26
2021
By The African Mirror
Tunisia’s powerful union urges political, economic reform to head off crisis

Tunisia’s powerful union urges political, economic reform to head off crisis

NEWS
TAREK AMARA and ANGUS McDOWALL THE leader of Tunisia's UGTT labour union, widely seen as the country's most powerful political player with more than a million members, told Reuters urgent reform was needed to head off a social and economic crisis. "We need a national discussion on the political system ... the dialogue should include reforms to revive the economy," said Noureddine Taboubi, secretary-general of the union, a national movement that helped end colonial rule in 1956 and won a Nobel Peace Prize for its role calming tensions after the 2011 "Arab Spring" revolution. As the revolution's 10th anniversary arrived…
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Jan
24
2021
By The African Mirror
Hundreds march in Tunisia as protests sharpen

Hundreds march in Tunisia as protests sharpen

NEWS
HUNDREDS of people marched in central Tunis yesterday against inequality and police brutality, in defiance of a ban on demonstrations and as security forces tried to block off the city's main central avenue. Protesters chanted "the people want the fall of the regime" - a chant popularised during the so-call Arab Spring a decade ago - and held up banners and slogans decrying the security response to more than a week of demonstrations and nightly clashes between youths and police in cities across Tunisia. The protests, 10 years after a popular revolt against autocratic rule introduced democracy in Tunisia, represent…
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Dec
16
2020
By The African Mirror
Ten years on, anger grows in Tunisian town where ‘Arab Spring’ began

Ten years on, anger grows in Tunisian town where ‘Arab Spring’ began

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
ANGUS MCDOWALL AND TAREK AMARA TEN years ago, a fruit seller set himself ablaze in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid after an altercation with a policewoman about where he had put his cart. Word of Mohammed Bouazizi's fatal act of defiance quickly spread, sparking nationwide protests that eventually toppled Tunisia's long-serving leader and helped inspire similar uprisings across the region - the so-called "Arab Spring". Huge demonstrations broke out in Egypt and Bahrain, governments fell and civil war engulfed Libya, Syria and Yemen. Tunisians are now free to choose their leaders and can publicly criticise the state. Yet…
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