The Interim Government Tunisian break out of a dangerous impasse. Tuesday was in fact announced the creation of an ad hoc committee tasked with organizing the country's first democratic elections, scheduled for next July 24. The vote should get out of the constituent assembly charged with drafting the new institutional architecture to ferry the North African country out of the shadow of nearly thirty years of the regime of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.
The task, however, is anything but simple and the risks are many. So much so that the interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi, in office for two months, has already hinted a possible postponement of the election date, citing, in a televised address, unspecified "technical difficulties".
A court, however, seems unlikely. For at least three reasons. The first is the continued pressure of the square, which has never ceased to make their voices heard since Ben Ali was forced to leave the country and take refuge in Saudi Arabia. For the past week, thousands of people, especially young people demonstrated on Avenue Bourguiba, in the heart of Tunis, to demand the resignation of Essebsi, accusing him of wanting to postpone the elections to stay in power without a popular vote.
Sunday, May 8, the police intervened to disperse the demonstrations and there were about seventy stops, plus a few injured. If in fact the caretaker government decided to postpone the vote for the constituent assembly is a good bet that the protests will resume with even greater conviction.
The second reason that should lead the interim government to respect the roadmap for the post-Ben Ali is the economy. Tunisia, which has no oil resources of Libya, depends essentially on the economic cooperation with European countries (Italy and France in the lead) and the flow of tourists, which take up a vital piece of the national economy.
A new wave of protests and instability threatens to send tilt in both foreign investment and tourist flows, with serious repercussions on employment, especially youth. As if these concerns were not enough, the lively Tunisian blogosphere has bounced and amplified statements Farhat Rajhi, a former interior minister in the weeks following the escape of Ben Ali.
Rahji warned that if the upcoming elections would be a victory of the Islamist party al-Nahda, the military could go on stage and decide to move in a coup. Rajhi made reference to a "clique" of people linked to the old regime, who could use the specter of a victory of the Islamists, however, very moderate, to take power and derail the first successful Arab revolution.
According to former Interior Minister of the maneuver to cauterize the revolution would be part of jasmine same inter im Essebsi Prime Minister, supported by figures such as Kamel Ltaief, a close ally of Ben Ali, who some say was even the 'creator of the coup "palace" in 1987 that brought Ben Ali to oust the old "father of the fatherland" Habib Bourguiba (with the complicity of the Italian secret service, however).
Statements of Rahji, a lawyer all'establishment stranger to political revolution and known for his honesty, was collected during a private conversation, filmed by a camera in the former prime minister apparently had not noticed and posted on Facebook . The effect was no immediate mobilization of bloggers and youth movements, which were greeted with satisfaction on his appointment to the Interior Ministry, in January, surprised and concerned with his dismissal a few weeks later.
The uncertainties of the interim government on the date of the elections seem to agree with Rajhi and fueling distrust of Tunisian citizens. The fear is twofold. On the one hand there is the fear that a move like that elites linked to the old regime could return in vogue or at least maintain a grip on the state and blocking democratic development to which the citizens took to the streets.
On the other hand, the prospect and is undoubtedly worse, annulment of the elections, if ever really win the Islamists of al-Nahda, a scenario could open style Algeria nineties, when, after the elections won by the Islamic Front of Salvation Army, the army seized power unleashing a terrible civil war, with hundreds of thousands of casualties and brutalities committed by both sides.
Among el-Nahda and the Algerian FIS nineties there are similarities, especially since the Tunisian Islamists have never resorted to violence and have a long history of collaboration with other political opposition forces, from the Communists. However, in the chaos of post-revolutionary (and with Libya in flames a few miles away) everything could happen.
Especially with a little push from someone who has never accepted the outcome of the revolution and have the ability to neutralize the consequences. Joseph Zarlingo Lettera22 
The task, however, is anything but simple and the risks are many. So much so that the interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi, in office for two months, has already hinted a possible postponement of the election date, citing, in a televised address, unspecified "technical difficulties".
A court, however, seems unlikely. For at least three reasons. The first is the continued pressure of the square, which has never ceased to make their voices heard since Ben Ali was forced to leave the country and take refuge in Saudi Arabia. For the past week, thousands of people, especially young people demonstrated on Avenue Bourguiba, in the heart of Tunis, to demand the resignation of Essebsi, accusing him of wanting to postpone the elections to stay in power without a popular vote.
Sunday, May 8, the police intervened to disperse the demonstrations and there were about seventy stops, plus a few injured. If in fact the caretaker government decided to postpone the vote for the constituent assembly is a good bet that the protests will resume with even greater conviction.
The second reason that should lead the interim government to respect the roadmap for the post-Ben Ali is the economy. Tunisia, which has no oil resources of Libya, depends essentially on the economic cooperation with European countries (Italy and France in the lead) and the flow of tourists, which take up a vital piece of the national economy.
A new wave of protests and instability threatens to send tilt in both foreign investment and tourist flows, with serious repercussions on employment, especially youth. As if these concerns were not enough, the lively Tunisian blogosphere has bounced and amplified statements Farhat Rajhi, a former interior minister in the weeks following the escape of Ben Ali.
Rahji warned that if the upcoming elections would be a victory of the Islamist party al-Nahda, the military could go on stage and decide to move in a coup. Rajhi made reference to a "clique" of people linked to the old regime, who could use the specter of a victory of the Islamists, however, very moderate, to take power and derail the first successful Arab revolution.
According to former Interior Minister of the maneuver to cauterize the revolution would be part of jasmine same inter im Essebsi Prime Minister, supported by figures such as Kamel Ltaief, a close ally of Ben Ali, who some say was even the 'creator of the coup "palace" in 1987 that brought Ben Ali to oust the old "father of the fatherland" Habib Bourguiba (with the complicity of the Italian secret service, however).
Statements of Rahji, a lawyer all'establishment stranger to political revolution and known for his honesty, was collected during a private conversation, filmed by a camera in the former prime minister apparently had not noticed and posted on Facebook . The effect was no immediate mobilization of bloggers and youth movements, which were greeted with satisfaction on his appointment to the Interior Ministry, in January, surprised and concerned with his dismissal a few weeks later.
The uncertainties of the interim government on the date of the elections seem to agree with Rajhi and fueling distrust of Tunisian citizens. The fear is twofold. On the one hand there is the fear that a move like that elites linked to the old regime could return in vogue or at least maintain a grip on the state and blocking democratic development to which the citizens took to the streets.
On the other hand, the prospect and is undoubtedly worse, annulment of the elections, if ever really win the Islamists of al-Nahda, a scenario could open style Algeria nineties, when, after the elections won by the Islamic Front of Salvation Army, the army seized power unleashing a terrible civil war, with hundreds of thousands of casualties and brutalities committed by both sides.
Among el-Nahda and the Algerian FIS nineties there are similarities, especially since the Tunisian Islamists have never resorted to violence and have a long history of collaboration with other political opposition forces, from the Communists. However, in the chaos of post-revolutionary (and with Libya in flames a few miles away) everything could happen.
Especially with a little push from someone who has never accepted the outcome of the revolution and have the ability to neutralize the consequences. Joseph Zarlingo Lettera22
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