Politics 166
Politics Thameur Mekki 16 June 2020

«Operation Carthage»: Nabil Karoui and lobbyist Lotfi Bel Hadj busted by Facebook

« Disinformation as a service » is how the Atlantic Council described the services provided by Tunisian digital communication agency UReputation to presidential candidate Nabil Karoui during his campaign for Tunisia’s 2019 presidential elections. On June 5, the American think-tank published an investigation carried out by its Digital Forensic Research lab (DFRLab) which exposed the collaboration. Dubbed « Operation Carthage », UReputation’s activities targeted 10 African countries to the profit of four politicians running for president in their countries’ elections. Yet another affair revealing Karoui’s dubious practices, who owns UReputation, the Tunisian PR firm with such global influence?

Politics Manel Derbali 16 May 2020

Covid 19 in Tunisia: Legal clarifications regarding the « protective masks affair »

During his hearing before parliament’s Administrative Reform Commission, Tunisian Minister of Industry Salah Ben Youssef presented his excuses to the Tunisian public due to suspicions surrounding a project to manufacture two million protective masks in which a parliamentary deputy was implicated. How to shed light on the affair? And how have parliament and control structures reacted?

Politics Manel Derbali 06 May 2020

Covid-19 in Tunisia: Tensions arise between municipalities and central government

Since the announcement of the first cases of Coronavirus on March 2, 2020, Tunisia’s government has taken measures to slow down the epidemic— the curfew, general confinement and telecommuting for certain sectors. Despite their importance at a national level however, these measures do not call into question the responsibility of local authorities in preserving citizens’ health. A responsibility that follows the principle of administrative freedom stipulated in the Code of Local Collectivities. But to what extent have local authorities fulfilled their role in preventing the spread of the virus? Have conflicts arisen with regards to the government’s prerogatives and the powers conferred on the municipalities?

Politics Samih Beji Okkez 25 February 2019

Marouen Mabrouk, a story of impunity after the revolution

As per the official request of prime minister Youssef Chahed, the name of Marouen Mabrouk was removed from the list of 48 Tunisians sanctioned by the European Union for misappropriation of state funds. Unlike other friends and relatives of deposed president Ben Ali who saw their money frozen by the EU, Mabrouk was able to find himself a new political shield to protect his wealth following the revolution that swept the country in 2011. With help from telecommunications company Orange France, he managed to get Tunisia’s prime minister to unfreeze over seven million euros in assets held in EU countries.

Politics Thameur Mekki 18 February 2019

Investigation: UPS Tunisia to the rescue of Nidaa Tounes

Having endured multiple scissions since coming to power at the end of 2014, Nidaa Tounes is all but in pieces. Today, the party is trying to mend its wounds by absorbing the Free Patriotic Union (UPL) and, seven years after its creation, organizing its first elective congress. To this end, a na-tional conference of regional coordinators was held in Mahdia over the weekend of December 21-23, 2018. The event is telling about the banalization of murky relations between the business world and Nidaa Tounes, whose own treasurer is playing the role of party financer.

Politics Malek Lakhal 04 February 2019

Revolution in the Time of Neoliberalism, an interview with Asef Bayat

Author of “Life as Politics : How ordinary people change the Middle East” (2009), Asef Bayat is a sociology professor at the University of Illinois. His latest book “Revolutions without Revolutionnaries” (2017), questions the revolutionnary nature of the Arab Revolutions. He was invited by the Forum Tunisien des Droits Economiques et Sociaux (FTDES) to discuss the possibility of a revolution in a neoliberal context during a conference last month in Tunis. Nawaat met with Bayat to discuss the future of revolutions in a world taken hostage by a dying neoliberal order.

Politics Hammadi Lassoued 31 January 2019

Youth protest campaigns: Shifting stakes, ambiguous party relations

Over the past month, Tunisia’s streets have provided the setting for a number of social movements marked by the new campaign slogan Basta (« enough »). The emergence of this campaign has raised a number of questions around the effectiveness of this form of struggle in achieving its demands and independence from political parties, especially in terms of its ability to preserve a horizontalist organization. Questions frequently raised in the context of youth protest campaigns that have been carried out in Tunisia over the past several years (Fech Nestannew, Manich Msameh, Tamarrod).

Politics Samih Beji Okkez 14 October 2018

Despite crimes in Yemen, Saudi airforces train in Tunisian skies

Since October 3, Saudi planes have launched into Tunisian skies, where joint military exercises are underway with Tunisian air forces. A statement issued by the Kingdom’s defense ministry describes the exercises as « highlighting the capabilities, professionalism and readiness of the Saudi airforce ». Such capabilities, which the Saudi regime seeks to « refine » with the help of Tunisia, were demonstrated on August 9 of this year when it targeted a school bus in Sana’a, Yemen, killing 29 children. With Saudi-Tunisian joint military exercises underway, Tunisia has provided Saudi Arabia with the airspace it needs to sharpen its knives before shedding more blood in Yemen.

Politics Malek Lakhal 14 September 2018

Investigation: 3ich Tounsi, a « citizen movement » with political ambitions

3ich Tounsi has been the subject of lots of talk over the past months, suscitating a number of questions in its overexposure. Mega-events with ambiguous objectives, copiously-sponsored television and internet ads, opaque funding sources—such characteristics render 3ich Tounsi a veritable extra-terrestrial to the non-profit world, especially when it comes to the association’s discourse which has become more and more openly political.

Politics Malek Lakhal 17 July 2018

Tunisia-United Kingdom: Austerity, a courtesy of Her Majesty

On July 2, The Guardian announced that the British government had concluded a contract with advertising agency M&C Saatchi for a communications campaign to benefit the Tunisian government. The revelation, fueled by the declarations of Britain’s ambassador to Tunisia and statements made by the spokesman for Tunisia’s Presidency, shed light on the growing implication of foreign countries in Tunisia under the convenient pretext of « strengthening capacities ». A problem all the more critical because it is the Tunisian government requesting foreign assistance.

Politics Malek Lakhal 16 May 2018

Tunisia: Abstention Party, big winner of the municipal elections

The winner of municipal elections was already known to all: abstention. From one electoral deadline to the next, abstention has been gaining ground. Voting awareness campaigns had but little effect on disenchanted and mistrustful citizens, even when we question them in places where the municipality has undertaken renovations. Report in Tunis, precisely the Tunis 1 municipal district where the rate of abstention reached 74%.

Politics Malek Lakhal 27 January 2018

Interview with Hamza Meddeb: “The system keeps youth at the margins of society”

Tunisian political science scholar Hamza Meddeb published in 2015 “The state of injustice in the Maghreb: Morocco and Tunisia”. In one of the book’s chapters called “Waiting as a mode of governance in Tunisia”, he analyses the ways in which the Tunisian government diffuses social conflicts by inciting protestors to be patient and wait. At a moment when such manoeuvres seem to be reaching their limits, Nawaat sat with Hamza Meddeb to discuss the current protests. Interview.

Politics Vanessa Szakal 13 January 2018

“Fech nestannaw” anti-austerity protests continue in downtown Tunis

Friday, January 12 marked just over a week since protests broke out against the increased prices introduced by Tunisia’s 2018 budget. Unlike previous periods of contestation since the 2011 revolution, demonstrations in at least 18 regions across the country over the past week have been characterized by heightened tension leading to confrontations between protesters and security forces. Friday’s demonstration in Tunis, strained but peaceful, coincided with the court date of Ahmed Sassi, one of many campaign activists who has been arrested since January 4.

Politics Samih Beji Okkez 12 January 2018

Map of protests: increased prices galvanize streets across Tunisia

Protests against the 2018 finance law, which began within parliament and media outlets long before hitting the streets, provoked tension around the approved increase in prices. Tunisians, already fed up with the repercussions of a prolonged economic crisis, have turned out into the streets. A new wave of protest movements began in January, and quickly turned into confronta-tions between protesters and security forces in 18 governorates. Clashes culminated on Monday night with the death of the first protester in Tebourba, just outside of the capital.

Politics Vanessa Szakal 05 January 2018

Tunisia in 2017: The divide between local struggles and government policies

If many had hopes that 2017 might hold answers to the social and economic demands of the revolution, those hopes were short-lived. Tunisians faced an increasingly grim economic situation with an 8% drop in the value of the dinar and unemployment at 15.3%. The country’s long-awaited municipal elections, promising decentralized governance, are postponed until May 2018. Several months after the Prime Minister declared a « war against corruption », parliament passed the “reconciliation law” pardoning administrative officials implicated in economic crimes under the former regime. As much as resistance to changing old ways persists, protest movements represented a dynamic social force in 2017.