D I P L O M ATIC A | Q UE STI ON S A sk e d We don’t have proof, but extremism comes from everywhere and [is backed by] some money, some weapons. Weapons also come from Libya because of proliferation of weapons there. Many things have come together to be against the revolution in Tunisia. The people who rule Tunisia now, most of them used to be in prison. They knew torture and sometimes they don’t want to give orders to torture and [seize] people. And the Salafists [fundamentalist Muslims] are profiting from this, which they see as weakness. Some Salafists are extremists, some are not. We are not here to judge them. We would like this trend to be under the control of democracy. We would like to let all people express themselves, whether they talk about religious things or not. But we want them to do it peacefully, because it is in accord with our traditions and our religion. DM: What are the biggest problems you
have faced?
RE: We helped the Libyans a lot [during
their revolution]. It took from us a lot of energy, a lot of money also, because we had to deal with about 900,000 refugees,
which is not easy for a tiny country like Tunisia. The foreign aid helped but it did not cover these costs. We lack milk, juice and diapers. We have a shortage of pharmaceutical products. Do you know where they are going? They are going to Libya. Add these problems together — extremism, external debt, reduction of tourist numbers, falling industrial and agricultural production with unemployed people going on strike or people striking for higher wages. Small Tunisia couldn’t bear all this. DM: What was your economic situation before the unrest and the revolution of 2010? RE: We had quite a prosperous economic situation as a country which was relying more on human resources rather than natural resources. We had developed tourism and the economy. We even had an agreement of partnership with the European Union, which started in 2008 and was working well. And we discovered there is no difference between a Tunisian and an Italian, or a Frenchman or German and we were aspiring to this. Tunisia’s image abroad is amplified in
negative aspects. In some parts, yes, there are riots. Many, many tourists in the last few years did not have any problems. DM: And unemployment? RE: We used to have unemployment, but
it was not so bad. It became worse because more than 150,000 Tunisians who were employed in Libya returned during the Libyan revolution and would like to have jobs. But we cannot distribute jobs like bread. This is a very, very painful situation for us. And jihadists are coming from abroad. [They] are used to participating in civil wars. These are new notions which were not present in daily life in Tunisia. Tunisian people are not violent people. They are not jihadists. So we are going to become another society. If we do not accept [jihadists], there are going to be some differences, some conflict, even some violence from time to time. They will find people are discontented and stir them up. If you have a national dialogue with them and convince them that they are outnumbered — and they are outnumbered— they cannot impose anything on us. They numbered about 3,000 [demonstrating] the day after the funeral. During
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