A step too far
On the 17th of December 2011 Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire in the remote town of Sidi Bouazid, unknowingly triggering a chain of events that eventually led to the Jasmine Revolution and the end of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s autocratic rule in Tunisia. Exactly 11 years later, a new President was expected to cement his rule, implicitly reaffirming his solid grip over a country shaken to the core by the series of unfortunate events that, since his election in 2019, have irremediably reversed the democratic gains of the so-called Arab Spring. Indeed, on 17 December 2022 Tunisians were once again called to the ballot boxes for snap general elections after the dissolution of the parliament by presidential decree in late March.
