Tunisian Republic
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Country Facts
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Country Leadership
Interim President: Fouad Mebazaa Former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali went into exile in January 2011 following weeks of street protests whose success inspired waves of unrest across the Middle East and North Africa. The Tunisian uprising, described as the Jasmine Revolution, unseated Mr Ben Ali after 23 years in power. Within weeks a similar popular revolt in Egypt removed long-term president Hosni Mubarak. Ben Ali had been president since 1987Once Mr Ben Ali stepped aside his prime minister, Mohammed Ghannouchi, formed a unity government which included some opposition figures but angered protesters and some of his new cabinet by picking several members of the old guard. Mr Ghannouchi resigned soon after. Mr Mebazaa, as interim president, has said an interim government would manage the transition to democracy until a representative council is elected in July to rewrite the constitution. Mr Ben Ali, from the ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD), had been due to retire in 2004 but changes to the constitution allowed him to run for two more terms. Born in 1936 in Hammam Sousse, Mr Ben Ali was Tunisia's ambassador in Warsaw in 1980 and became prime minister in October 1987. He was sworn in as the new president in 1987, after doctors declared President Habib Bourguiba unfit to govern because of senility. The takeover is sometimes described as a palace coup. Rights groups and some political opponents said Tunisia's government was authoritarian with a veneer of pluralism. They said it stifled free speech and beat and jailed opponents, something the government denied. |
 Ben Ali had been president since 1987
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The Embassy of the Tunisian Republic in Washington, D.C.
1515 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20005
Telephone: (202) 862-1850
Fax: (202) 862-1858
Embassy Activities:
Telephone: (202) 862-1850
Fax: (202) 862-1858
Embassy Activities:
