200 arrested, dozens hurt in Tunisia unrest

M – Tunisian police have arrested 328 people after four nights of anti-austerity protests, Interior Ministry spokesman Col.

Protests erupted in at least 12 towns across Tunisia on Monday, among them the tourist towns of Sousse and Hammamet, against price and tax rises imposed by the government to reduce its ballooning deficit and satisfy worldwide lenders.

At least 49 police officers were also injured during clashes with demonstrators, the spokesman added.

Tunisian authorities have arrested 328 people over involvement in “subversive” acts after a third night of protests against price and tax increases, the Interior Ministry said Thursday. Police said they did not kill him and said he had a respiratory condition, according to The Guardian.

Rights group Amnesty International accused the authorities of using “increasingly heavy-handed methods to disperse rallies and subsequently arrest protesters” during the unrest.

This policy, along with the cooperation of the Islamic Ennahdha [Renaissance] Party, a partner in the coalition, has made Tunisia the only success story of the “Arab Spring”, and it appears that despite the difficulties it will continue to show stability despite the internal protest.

The military has been deployed to protect government buildings, banks and stores, the defense ministry said.

On the island of Djerba in the southeast of the country, a Jewish school was attacked by young protesters wearing hoods.

In Sfax, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Tunis, around 200 people vented their anger over rising prices, an AFP correspondent reported.

Mhamdi said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that many Tunisian youth have lost faith in political parties.

The protests began peacefully last week, but escalated on Monday evening.

In Sidi Ali Ben Aoun, Sidi Bouzid governorate, protesters blocked the national road number 3 linking their town to Tunis and Gafsa.

Since the toppling of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, Tunisia has been relatively stable compared to its neighbor, Libya, despite occasional unrest and terrorist attacks.

La Presse, meanwhile, ran an editorial under the headline “Democracy and the rule of law” essentially backing a crackdown on the protests, while insisting that “Tunisians must be spared a social explosion” and arguing that the country will be “able to negotiate the economic transition as skillfully as they have succeeded with the democratic revolution”.

Global lenders extended a crucial $2.8bn (£2.1bn) loan to Tunisia a year ago, but have demanded cuts to the civil service and a broader austerity programme.

The immediate trigger for the unrest was a 2018 budget that cuts spending and raises taxes in a bid to bring the deficit to below 5 per cent. Demonstrations have swelled into one of the most serious challenges to Prime Minister Youssef Chahed’s government since it was formed in late 2016.