Tunisia Celebrates New Constitution

Local Editor

As recently as December, the outlook for Tunisia remained grim. International lenders were withholding money.

Parliament remained deadlocked. Investigations continued into the assassination of two politicians.
On Friday, French President Francois Hollande and other world leaders are attending a ceremony for the formal adoption of a document being praised as one of the most progressive constitutions in an Arab nation.

Friday's ceremony in Tunis also will include the presidents of Senegal and Gabon, heads of state from Lebanon, Mauritania and Chad, the Algerian prime minister, Spanish Crown Prince Felipe, and several European parliamentary leaders.
The so-called Arab Spring, which began in Tunisia, is now being described by many analysts as a region-wide winter, especially in countries such as Egypt, where the country's first popularly elected leader was deposed by the military.

On Monday, President Barack Obama called new interim Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa and congratulated him on the new constitution, and invited him to visit Washington.
After overthrowing their dictator in 2011, Tunisians brought a an-Nahda party into power allied with two other secular parties.
But this coalition struggled in the face of continuing social unrest, high unemployment and the rise of extremists with ties to al-Qaeda that seemed bent on derailing the political transition.

The deadlock exacerbated the economic crisis in Tunisia, and the International Monetary Fund withheld a half billion dollar loan. The S&P international ratings agency in August downgraded Tunisia's credit rating two more notches deeper into junk territory. It described "the popular legitimacy of Tunisia's transitional institutions as increasingly contested, jeopardizing the approval of the new constitution." Inflation soared, the budget deficit yawned even wider, and demonstrations over high food prices and lack of jobs spread.

Source: News agencies, Edited by website team