From north to south, protests sweep across Tunisia: is change at hand?

Several Tunisian provinces are witnessing growing popular protests demanding development, jobs and dignity, the same slogans that drove the revolution that erupted on 14 January 2011.

For the first time since then, residents are joining unemployed people in protesting after becoming tired of unfulfilled promises and unenforced laws and conditions that are worsening day by day.

Several provinces took to the streets yesterday, Thursday, 17 September, after a large popular mobilisation was held in the town of Menzel Bouzaiane in Sidi Bouzid province, the birthplace of the Tunisian revolution, on Monday.

As part of the escalation, the same delegation witnessed a second mobilisation by unemployed people on Wednesday, under the slogan "Work, freedom, national dignity."

The province of Kasserine in central-western Tunisia witnessed unprecedented tensions on Tuesday, when unemployed university graduates, accompanied by their children and families, protested, demanding the implementation of Law No. 18 of 2025, which provides for their recruitment into the public sector.

Protests by unemployed university graduates are continuing in Gabes province in southern Tunisia and several other Tunisian provinces.

On 14 September, renewed calls were made to hold a regional protest outside the headquarters of the Gabes governorate.

In an effort to contain public anger, Tunisian President Kais Saied held a meeting with Prime Minister Sarra Zaafrani Zenzri and Economy and Planning Minister Samir Abdelhafidh on Tuesday evening to prepare the draft finance law for next year.

According to a statement from the presidency, Saied stressed the need to place the options contained in the draft finance law within the framework of the five-year plan that had been approved in a way that would ensure the desired regional balance, provide job opportunities and effectively achieve dignity within the framework of purely national choices.

Links between political, social and economic sectors

Wissem Sghayer, spokesman for the Republican Party, told The New Arab that "the social movement is, at its core, a political movement. The political issue is not only about rights and freedoms but also brings together and intersects with social and economic issues," adding that this movement therefore represents one of the major aspects of the political issue.

"The demands of elites across different fields intersect with everything social and economic, and as the crisis Tunisia is experiencing worsens, there will be an intersection between the sectoral social movement, whose demands are specific, and political action, which political and civil elites express and represent," he stressed.

"The moment will come when all these issues converge in the same arena",  Sghayer said, further elaborating that "an important element has entered the overall scene, namely the Tunisian General Labour Union and its call for a general strike."

"These are all interconnected and complementary elements, as the union played a role in the national dialogue and is therefore a key component of the overall scene. Despite its declining role, its recent action last Thursday represents a message to the authorities that it stands against authoritarianism and injustice. All these components converge around the same message, and this bleak situation may change, as may the balance of power compared with what it was previously," he added.

Former foreign minister and Ennahda Movement leader Rafik Abdessalem said that "there is a growing protest movement with social demands in the capital and across the country."

"Some of these demands concern water and electricity cuts and the lack of necessities of life, while others relate to jobs, services, marginalisation and other issues," he said.

The former minister also said that with the Tunisian General Labour Union entering the scene through regional actions, in preparation for a general strike, the social arena is heading towards greater tension, indicating a major state of unrest similar to the atmosphere that preceded the Tunisian revolution.

This is particularly the case amid the authorities' inability to meet citizens' basic needs and their rejection of all forms of dialogue and social negotiations, as if their message to Tunisian society and its political and social forces is that there is no way to achieve change other than through popular protests.

 "At the same time, despite the systematic repression carried out by the coup authorities through arrests, political trials and silencing voices by using Decree 54, which restricts freedom of expression, the political arena is witnessing growing mobilisation, represented by the formation of political and social initiatives and political fronts," Abdessalem remarked.

"However, what has been observed so far is that the social and political movements are moving along relatively parallel tracks, but over time they are heading towards convergence, particularly as everyone has come to realise that social demands, without political organisation and a political horizon, remain limited in their impact," he added.

Tunisia's head of state

The former minister also told TNA, "Social protests have begun to feature political slogans directed at the head of state, particularly after they hit a wall of indifference, manipulation and repression by the regime. Therefore, the scene is likely to move, through the accumulation of crises and the development of protests, towards greater overlap and convergence between the social and political tracks."

He noted that the Tunisian General Labour Union itself, which has clearly distanced itself from the authorities and saw a correction in its trade union line after its latest congress last Thursday, had included issues of freedoms, opposition to political trials and the use of the judiciary in its statements and trade union demands.

He also pointed out that "Tunisia is recovering its long-standing political traditions based on political and organised social action and on coordination and joint work in confronting an authority that seeks to undermine all intermediary bodies and destroy all the gains brought by the revolution under the slogan 'the people want', which has turned into the slogan 'the leader wants', without a people, safeguards or oversight."

"The most important lesson Tunisians have drawn from their revolution is that social demands, if they remain within their sectoral or local regional framework, remain limited in scope, while when they combine with political action, they become a key driver of change," he added.

He stressed that Tunisia is moving towards "the convergence of the various streams of political struggle and social protest based on restoring freedom and democracy, particularly as the promises of the coup authorities have faded and their failures have increased at all levels, while anger and tension have intensified and spread across different areas."

"This increases the possibility of the social movement converging with the political movement, and this may be one of the most prominent features of the next phase in Tunisia," he concluded.

For it's part, The National Democratic Socialist Party said in a statement on Monday: "The unemployed are facing promises that have not found a way to implementation and a reality that exposes the falsehood of the slogans raised by the Kais Saied authorities, which placed employment, social justice and the right to a dignified life at the forefront of its priorities. Employment therefore remains the main demand embodied by the revolutionary process, and the authorities must stop delaying and stalling and activate the law for those whose unemployment has lasted a long time."

The party stressed that "the struggle of the unemployed is part of the struggle against exploitation and injustice."

Unemployment fuels protests

According to researcher specialising in social movements Ramadhan Ben Omar, "protests by unemployed people are intensifying across the regions, and the geographical scope of the protests is expanding daily."

"We are facing a growing and escalating state of protest across the regions. The authorities will face a real test: either confronting these protests using traditional methods, namely security and repression, or attempting to discredit the protests through rhetoric about conspiracies, treason and the existence of external actors," he said. "This is the rhetoric the authorities resort to whenever there are movements linked to social and economic demands, and not only to discredit rights and civil society protests."

"The unemployed continue to put the authorities in an embarrassing position and hold them responsible. They will face two options: either submit and issue the implementing orders for Law No. 18 of 2025, which concerns exceptional provisions for recruiting higher education graduates who have been unemployed for a long time into the public sector and civil service, or the protests will take on other dimensions, as several parties with different demands may join them," he noted.

Wiam Othmani, a civil society activist and one of the unemployed people in Menzel Bouzaiane, told The New Arab that the movement in Menzel Bouzaiane is peaceful "but it is continuing to escalate because Law No. 18, published in the Official Gazette in 2025 and providing for the employment of those who have been unemployed for a long time, has not been implemented, and the promises made to the unemployed have not been fulfilled."

"14 years have passed without her being employed, while some people have been unemployed for 20 or 25 years, or even longer," she said, pointing out that "the situation in her area is extremely bad, indeed very dire", adding that "all the delegations in Sidi Bouzid will rise up, with residents taking part, not only because they are their children's biggest supporters, but because the cup has overflowed."

She continued, "There is no turning back," explaining that their protests have no leadership, "but they organise themselves to ensure that they remain peaceful until their demands for jobs and dignity are met."

Article translated from Arabic by Afrah Almatwari. To read the original, click here.