Greetings Expats,
I had the opportunity to attend yesterday’s protest downtown and make some notes:
- 1st: This is still a “Tunisian-Political-Non Expat-Thing”: Although we are still deep into a political crisis, the situation remains local, internal, and to some degree civil.
Tunisia Security Update Onsite Feb 23 Protest
- 2nd: We should still avoid protests: While these protests are more like intense soccer matches, there are always troublemakers lurking around and you never know when things are going to get out of hand.
- 3rd: Bigger Picture: Security coordinators get concerned when big protests are announced downtown. Their concerns are not about the protest itself, but about the peripheral risks. If these protests get violent they tend to spread and when that happens thugs & criminals take the opportunity to cause havoc.
Next 15 Days
“We are going to enter the phase of forming a new government that will be for all Tunisian men and women, taking into account the fact that men and women have equal rights and responsibilities,” said Larayedh on his promotion from interior minister.-
“will have 15 days to form a new government and present its plan”
It is safe to assume that the opposition along with civil societies and everyday Tunisians dissatisfied with the current government will challenge this “transitional phase”.
New Prime Minster already feeling the pressure…
On Saturday, the government issued a declaration in order to clarify the “powers of the outgoing Government.”
“Contrary to some suggestions reported recently and according to which the outgoing Government would act after its resignation only as a caretaker government, Article 19 of the organic law 2011-6 dated December 2011 on the provisional regulation of public authorities states, in its penultimate paragraph, that the outgoing Government keeps all its powers until the new Government takes up duties,” said the Prime Ministry.
Get ready for Stage 3
Few open source articles offer as much insight and practical analysis as the New Republic’s: Welcome to Phase Three of the Arab Spring by Paul Berman. The article is well written and a must read for Expats planning on living in Tunisia for the next few years.
“The Arab Spring’s Phase Three has nonetheless arrived. Phase Three adds up to a series of mass protests and revolts and even wars against Islamists of every stripe—against the mainstream Islamists in Egypt, against the moderates in Tunisia, and against the radicals in Mali. The people want to topple the Islamists!—a significant number of people, anyway. Events have by-passed the experts. Islamism, even in its mainstream and moderate versions, turns out to be less democratic than advertised; and the demos, less Islamist.”
Let’s stay connected and continue to share practical & relevant security information.
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