People hold Tunisia flag and shout protest slogans during a march held by the movement "Manich Msameh. Chedly Ben Ibrahim/SIPA USA/PA ImagesProtests against an ‘economic reconciliation law’ are currently drawing attention to Tunisia. Proponents argue that Tunisia’s economy needs a quick way to deal with past economic crimes under Ben Ali in order to create a stable climate that would drive investment. But a grassroots campaign, Manich Msamah (I shall not forgive), has long mobilised against the bill. It insists that there can be no reconciliation without holding the perpetrators of economic crimes accountable, using the instruments that the official transitional justice process in Tunisia offers.
Protests demanding employment and regional development in the marginalized interior of Tunisia are to a large part triggered by recruitment procedures manipulated by corruption and clientelist networks that still exist today. The increase since 2015 in these contentious practices underlines the importance in taking action against such structures by exposing their past, fighting their continuation, and preventing new ones from emerging.
