Ten years after the immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, the trigger for popular protests grouped together under the name of the "Arab Spring", Europe 1 looked into the case of Tunisia.
Beyond regained freedom of speech, the socio-economic situation of the country is far from being as good as the demonstrators hoped.
It was ten years ago, to the day: on December 17, 2010, the itinerant vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in the town of Sidi Bouzid, in Tunisia, after having his work tools confiscated, a cart and a scale.
The act, desperate, will very quickly trigger a wave of protest throughout the country, but also in neighboring countries, such as Libya or Egypt, giving rise to a real "Arab Spring".
Less than a month later, the Tunisian dictator Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali left the country, forced into exile.
"Firing a dictatorship, it was incredible"
At the time, hopes were immense for Ameni Ghimagi: "For an 18-year-old girl, to live that, it was incredible. To fire a dictatorship, to see all these people moving for the same thing ...", remembers - she at the microphone of Europe 1. Her face and her rage were even on the front page of the newspaper
Liberation
, on January 15, 2011, with this sign brandished during a demonstration: "Ben Ali, get out".
But ten years later, his observation is mixed: "We have not arrived where we would like to be."
"
Just go to social media and see how people express themselves
"
However, at the start, the democratic transition went quickly.
The country adopted a new Constitution in 2014, free elections were organized and a real political pluralism was born.
But the dream has been overtaken by economic reality: the recession is at 9% and the unemployment rate has reached 16% today, far from the "freedom, work, dignity" claimed by the Tunisian demonstrators.
"Permanent political instability"
"There is permanent political instability and they (the authorities) do not take care of unemployment and poverty", plague Nadia Khiari, cartoonist.
"Many young people prefer to look elsewhere for work opportunities, mainly in Europe, whether illegally or legally," says Henda Chennaoui, an activist journalist.
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There is however immense progress, praised by all: the advent of unthinkable freedom of expression under Ben Ali.
"You just have to go on social networks and see how people express themselves, with a really very free speech", illustrates Nadia Khiari.
A free speech, but also very angry.
It is also the tone used by magistrates on strike for more than a month to protest against their working conditions, considered catastrophic in a Tunisia with an explosive social climate.