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Introduction:
In January 2018, protests occurred in Tunisia, these protests were the result of economic hardships that Tunisians dealt with. The rise of prices and taxes have made the cost of living for Tunisians tremendously high.

Background
The rise of the labor-protests in Tunisia came from within the UGTT (Tunisians General Labor Union) trade union and its discontent that it has felt over the last couple of years. The continuous lack of internal reform presented the ongoing lack of cooperation and efforts from the government. Discontent from within the UGTT was not only visible in 2012, it also remained visible in 2018, in which they demanded an increase of their salary and wages, along with other structural changes.

Protests
These inceasing prices have affected the basic necessities, such as fuel, food and electricity. These price and tax changes were the result of the 2018 finance act, introduced by the government in which they had raised the national inflation rates. The reason for this inflation has to do with the IMF loan of 2.8 billon dollar that Tunisia’s government agreed upon. This loan however is argued by many activist and economist as having worsened the economy, since the IMF regularly imposed the central Tunisian Bank to devalue their currency. Living circumstances have therefore been very tough for Tunisians, the economic state of the country is therefore noticeably critical. High unemployment rates resulted in frustration and desperation among Tunisians, especially among the youth.

The Protests were focused on these economic grievances, nonetheless these protestors also aimed at critiquing the ongoing corruption. This is a matter that has been a demand since 2011 in Tunisia, but has also been visible in other protests during the 'Arab Spring'. It therefore has along economic and social demands been of importance to the public even since. Thus, the protests were a reflection of both social, economic and political demands, although Tunisia has been described as the single 'success story' of the Middle East, time has shown that this is no longer the case in the country.

The 2018 Tunisian protests are mainly dominated by youth movements, such as the movement 'Fesh nestannew' (what are we waiting for), whom are frustrated by the earlier mentioned new law concerning huge increases in taxes on basic necessities. ibid This group therefore are overall discontent about the daily social and economic circumstances that they have to face.

This younger generation fears for the effects of these new imposed laws and on the future of Tunisia that would include an intensification of unemployment among the youth and lead to an increase in inequality. The aim of these protests thus was call for an withdraw of the 2018 finance act and an call for making an end to such economic injustices that have only resulted into hardships for Tunisians. Another group of demonstrators however, demanded "the fall of the establishment" and are hereby challenging the current actions of the authorities.

Internal Responses
The majority of the protests remained peaceful, yet some turned into more violent confrontations between the police and the protestors. These violent-clashes can be depicted in the way the government reacted towards the protests, doing so quite harshly. In the town 'EttadHamen' the government used teargas to suppress the protestors, this clearly shows an example of the harsh and violent reaction by the government. The government's reaction towards the erupted protests were mainly focusing on condemning the protestors and highlighting criminal offenses, such as looting and theft that according to governmental officials erupted during these protests. The government therefore gave less or almost no attention to the demands of these protests, in which demonstrators called for an end to these social and economic difficulties. Instead, the army was demanded to operate in various of cities to safeguard governmental buildings from the protestors that were demonstrating outside of these buildings. The Tunisian prime minister critiqued the opposition party for encouraging the protestors to pose their discontent. Hamma Hamni, the leader of the opposition party 'Popular Front', claimed that protests would only end if the president would withdraw the set budget for 2018. Moreover, the government responded by promising 70.3 billion dollar, aiming at helping poorer families and providing healthcare to those in need. Many Tunisians however, remained skeptical of such promises and rather wanted to see long term solutions, Tunisians have dealt with many protests over the years and are therefore hoping to receive long term solutions that are aimed at decreasing inequality, poverty and unemployment rates.