Tunisia- “It is as if you, Abu Zaid, had never invaded” is a saying that seems most expressive of the conditions of the people of the Triangle cities Tunisian RevolutionAfter 13 years,… January seems colder and more miserable to their bleeding hearts and pierced pockets. The spark of the revolution started in the governorate of Sidi Bouzid, and was supported by the governorates of Kasserine and Gafsa, before it expanded to the rest of the cities.
The same revolutionary slogans are still being raised. In these three governorates, Even the bread demand that it raised in its central slogan, “Bread, water, and no coffee,” has become missing in its bakeries. Men and women line up with young children, crowding around a basket of bread Scenes that have become familiar.
The country has witnessed a stifling financial and economic situation since the president’s announcement Kais Saied He took exceptional measures on July 25, 2021, as the purchasing power of Tunisians deteriorated due to inflation, and basic materials such as grains, sugar, and vegetable oil experienced a severe shortage in the markets.
Continuous marginalization
In Sidi Bouzid (centre), which is considered the cradle of the revolution that overthrew the president’s regime Zine El Abidine Ben AliLooks like a cart Bouazizi And his giant banner are the only witnesses that a revolution broke out here. This poor city’s features have not changed, and even the employment promises and the allocated projects have not exceeded the limits of speeches.
Most of the people of Sidi Bouzid whom we asked doubted the effectiveness of development programs and the seriousness of the authorities in implementing them, especially those projects approved by previous ministerial councils, such as the major production market, the Faculty of Medicine, a university hospital, and a highway, in addition to fighting poverty and unemployment through positive discrimination between the regions.
Mohamed Jabli told Al Jazeera Net, “The city of Sidi Bouzid did not benefit from the revolution, throughout the successive governments that led to the coup of President Kais Saied, except for projects that remained a dead letter,” while poverty and unemployment rates increased, and the economic crisis in the country worsened.
Amal Hani believes that “despite the blood of young people and the innocent wounded of the revolution, the governments did not learn the lesson, and the train of the revolution did not move its wheels to achieve the slogans that the youth of the poor governorates dreamed of in achieving social justice,” stressing that a fair division of wealth has become an unattainable dream.
According to statistics from the National Institute of Government Statistics from the third quarter of 2023, the inflation rate reached 8.3%, while the unemployment rate reached 15.8%.
Disappointment
The situation of the three governorates is no different from each other, as nothing has changed in them. The suffering of their people is still difficult, like the folds of the rugged slopes of their mountains. Questions remain about the extent to which the policy of marginalization continues in these areas, which have only resulted in bullets on the bodies of hundreds of martyrs and wounded of the revolution from Her children.
Neither the hospitals nor the colleges nor even the roads promised by officials have been completed, and the excuse is that “the state is on the brink of bankruptcy and the political and economic conditions do not allow it,” which has deepened fears that the projects and the budgets allocated to them will evaporate in the governorates of the Poverty Triangle.
The people of Kasserine Governorate, located in the center-west, said in their interview with Al Jazeera Net that their region “paid the tax in blood, during a revolution that started from Sidi Bouzid,” but after many years had passed, the governments disappointed their hopes and did not fulfill their demands, especially the right to work, dignity, and the elimination of corruption. .
This governorate is described by Abdul Salam Hamdani, in his interview with Al Jazeera Net, as one of the country’s lost paradise, because it is the home of wealth and revolutionaries, and it is also the home of hunger, deprivation and poverty, explaining that it possesses approximately two-thirds of the country’s antiquities, but you will hardly find a single tourist there.
With stern looks bearing the disappointment of years of waiting, Nabil Samaali points with his finger to the “Zohour Neighborhood” and “Al-Nour Neighborhood,” where confrontations took place with regular forces during the events of the revolution, indicating that “governments consider that the people of the interior governorates are mere numbers, visited only by politicians during their campaigns.” “electoral.”
Miserable conditions
Not far from the neighboring governorates of Sidi Bouzid and Kasserine, the people of Gafsa governorate in the south do not appear to be in a better condition. The city, which has a wealth of energy and phosphates, has its cafés filled with thousands of unemployed young people, an indication of the extent of the dire social and economic conditions that the city is witnessing.
In turn, the conditions of the miners, amidst the scattered dust that penetrates the noses and lurks in the eyes, turning their whites into a prominent red, seem more difficult and stressful, as the polluted air of the region puts their lives in danger, as these mines, which represent the source of their strength and the focus of their economic and social life, have become a curse that stalks them.
Al-Hadi Al-Zaarawi watches the pale faces of passers-by who lacked a smile, pointing out that the city of mines of sweat, blood and steadfastness has suffered the scourges of phosphate wealth, and it is still outside the attention of the state, despite the sacrifices it has made since the events of the Gafsa mining basin in 2005.
In his speech to Al Jazeera Net, Al-Zaarawi brings up the names of dozens of those who were arrested in prisons because of their positions opposing the regime, adding that with the exception of environmental problems that led to many diseases, Gafsa inherited nothing but more disappointment and deprivation.
It is noteworthy that the volume of phosphate production in 2010 was approximately 8.5 million tons, and the revenues from its exports generated huge profits for the state and fed its stock of hard currency.
Freedom betrayed
Just as all slogans, especially those related to development, remained suspended, these governorates have not witnessed significant change over the past 13 years. Indeed, the “freedom of expression” that Tunisians praised during the years following the revolution was also lost, in light of the continuing series of arrests and trials.
Symbols of the revolution were arrested in these poor governorates, including Al-Assaad Bouazizi, the original governor of Sidi Bouzid Governorate, who was known for his rebellious and oppositional stances against the authorities, as well as many prominent leaders from the Ennahda movement, businessmen and journalists, on malicious charges of conspiring against the security of the state as a whole without evidence.
In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, political analyst Salah al-Din al-Jurshi considered that these arrests were “an intentional restriction by the current president, to tighten the siege on the parties, disperse them, and weaken the opposition line,” stressing that freedom of expression has declined significantly in Tunisia since the course of the revolution was changed.
President Saied had taken exceptional measures on July 25, 2021, during which he dismissed the previous government, dissolved Parliament, abolished the previous constitution, and dissolved the Supreme Judicial Council. He drafted a new constitution that established a presidential political system, and organized legislative elections that produced a new parliament. He justified these measures by the existence of a “danger.” “Raid on the state.”
