Opposition to continue protests in Tunisia

tunis — Tunisia’s main opposition party on Tuesday called for protests against the “unjust” 2018 budget including price and tax hikes to continue until the government scraps it, a day after one demonstrator was killed in clashes.

Protests erupted in more than 10 towns across Tunisia on Monday against the price and tax increases imposed by the government to reduce its ballooning deficit and satisfy its international lenders. One protestor was killed in Tebourba, a town 40km from the capital Tunis.

While Tunisia is widely seen as the only democratic success story among the “Arab Spring” nations where revolts took place in 2011, it has had nine governments since then and none of them have been able to tackle the country’s growing economic problems.

Late last year, the current government agreed to a four-year loan programme with the International Monetary Fund worth about $2.8 billion in return for economic reforms.

Public anger has been building since January 1, when the government raised the prices of petrol and other items and hiked taxes on cars, phone calls, Internet usage and hotel accommodation as part of those economic reforms.

“Today we have a meeting with the opposition parties to coordinate our movements, but we will stay on the street and we will increase the pace of the protests until the unjust financial law is dropped,” Popular Front leader Hamma Hammami told reporters.

He said the government was unfairly targeting the poor and middle classes with its austerity measures.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed called for calm, saying the economy would improve this year. —

We will stay on the street and we will increase the pace of the protests until the unjust financial law is dropped Hamma Hammami, Popular Front leader