By RFIPalled on 17-01-2019Modified on 17-01-2019 at 23:18

Officials and employees of Tunisian public companies have disengaged this Thursday, January 17 at the call of the powerful union UGTT. This dead day in transportation, schools, administrations and airports followed the failure of wage bargaining in the public service.

Inflation at nearly 8%, unemployment at more than 15% and the continuous fall of the dinar have continued to stall public accounts.

Many Tunisians ask the authorities to assume their responsibilities, like the academic Dalenda Largueche: " Today, the Tunisian middle class is rolled, he says. The Tunisian state is heavily indebted and he had to go to the IMF. It's up to the government to find the solutions. Because, every time, solutions have been found at the expense of taxpayers. And that's not normal. "

After receiving IMF assistance in 2016, the government is trying to reduce the public sector wage bill to 12.5 percent of GDP, compared with more than 15 percent today. The head of government assures that the public finances do not allow to accept the demands of the UGTT.

→ READ: Tunisia: eight years for nothing?

As a young pensioner, Fathi Chanoufi took to the streets to refuse to submit to IMF injunctions: " It is unthinkable that the IMF decides on our future. I know we need him, I did not say the opposite, but on our terms, "he argues.

For her part, Rida, cap screwed on the head, carries a sign denouncing the privatization of future public companies. " We are protesting against a government that is robbing a revolution and putting it in the hands of financiers, " she says. It is not the responsibility of the people if the government does not have the means; he must not do this kind of maneuvering. "

The union center ensures that this strike, massively followed, is only the first of a movement that will eventually bend the government.

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