Monday, more than nine million Tunisians are called to vote on a new fundamental law, during a referendum which has a good chance of being adopted. With, in hollow, a question: would this be the end of the Arab Spring, which began in the country eleven years ago?
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The Arab Spring is a vague memory for this Tunisian who lives from the recovery of plastic bottles in the street and who will vote yes in the referendum on Monday. Proposed by Kais Saïed, it will allow the Tunisian president to enjoy vast prerogatives without having to render accounts, marking a break with the hybrid parliamentary system established in 2014.
This country of twelve million inhabitants has been in the grip of a serious political crisis since President Kaïs Saied granted himself all the powers a year ago and directs it by decree. 9.3 million voters are called to the polls, with this question: could this be the end of the Arab Spring that began in Tunisia 11 years ago?
It is indeed time to turn the page. And the man explains that the situation keeps getting worse, that he has lost his job as a driver and that the political parties, for ten years, have done nothing to improve things. So much so that he comes to miss the former dictator Ali Ben Ali.
“It was better than now”, he sighs. The fault with the political parties and with Ennahdha, religious party of all the coalitions. “Making Ennahdha guilty is a false trial, defends former Prime Minister Ali Larayedh. We understand those who say there have been failures, but in politics, this decade is the best!”
Monday’s referendum, the coffin of the revolution? Obvious, for many, even if some still want to believe it. “It is the continuity of the revolution, one of them exclaims. The Revolution is not a commodity that one buys at the grocer’s. Revolution is a process. There are ups and downs ! No, we continue our fight!” This struggle started innocently by the young Mohamed Bouazizi, who set himself on fire in his market in Sidi Bouzid in 2011.