Ben Ali flees Tunisia

He went to Saudi Arabia, where he can expect to live for the rest of his life on the money robbed to the people... unless the intifada extends to Saudia, what it would not really surprise me eventually (not yet but wait). Rumor is that France rejected to allow him in.

The Saudi regime declared that:

Out of concern for the exceptional circumstances facing the brotherly Tunisian people and in support of the security and stability of their country... the Saudi government has welcomed President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his family to the kingdom.

Notice the emphasis on security and stability. Obviously the Saudi oligarchs have a lot to fear if the Intifada extends through the Arab World, as one would expect to happen: now Tunisia and Algeria, tomorrow Egypt and Morocco, then West Asia altogether, including Palestine and Saudia.

Prime minister M. Gannouchi has taken over as interim president, however it is not clear how this one is different from his predecessor and mentor. He may be even worse, as he was the one actually in charge of the repression and his emphasis upon assuming the Presidency has been to restore security and nothing else.

Also technically, the second in line to the presidency is not the prime minister but the speaker of the parliament, so Gannouchi's desperate internal coup is in any case not within legality. 

In my opinion the intifada will continue for the time being because nothing seems to have changed at all.

Reference: BBC, Al Jazeera.


Update (Jan 16):

Parliament's president assumes presidency and asks PM to form a national unity government.

A prison fire kills almost 50 inmates. Circumstances not clear.

Source: BBC, which is promoting the Islamist Party as replacement, when they played no role in the still ongoing revolution (communists and liberals did instead). Beware because it were the Brits who helped Hitler and Franco in the 1930s, so it's no surprise that they are now supporting the Islamo-Fascists, the same they have been doing for the last decades, along Israel, Saudia and the USA. Beware of the manipulations of the Empire.

Also here, several Tunisians talk of the Revolution in first person: one says that looting is being done by officialist gang, another that it's directed at oligarchic business only. Another says:

We were oppressed and silent, but we are no longer silent and every next president will know that if they are not supported by their people, they'll be fired. The message is clear. 

However another is less naive (let's remember there's been no regime change yet, only a cosmetic one):

Tunisian people are very angry. We want the people to take power. We can't accept those who've been with the president for years and years and have done everything together with him. No way!

The streets seem still not under any sort of control other than by more or less spontaneous groups of people. I very much doubt this is over, with the same PM as before. And let's not forget Algeria and West Sahara has been also in uprising. This looks just the beginning of a larger North African and maybe pan-Arab revolution not leaving a single piece of old regime standing: not Mubarak nor the Sauds but also not Iran nor Israel, much less the Alawites of Morocco and Jordan.

What is not clear is what will come next. The Empire will try to place the Islamists maybe mixed with Liberals. But neither has any idea of what to do because they do not challenge the social and economical status quo. In this sense the presence of Communist forces in the Tunisian Revolution is encouraging and gives a sense of direction, not just getting rid of the tyrant but also a social project to forge.