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Vol 60 No 13

Published 28th June 2019


Tunisia

Nobbling Nabil

The establishment has taken fright at popular new politicians, and is trying to kill off genuine challenges to the president and ruling party

A political class absorbed by the painfully long run-up to parliamentary elections on 6 October and the presidential poll on 17 November has suddenly found itself with a surprise outsider to contend with. Tunisians have been wondering whether local media magnate and television 'champion of the poor' Nabil Karoui could emerge as a Donald Trump figure, leveraging his celebrity to take over the presidency, for which he is one of the few candidates to have declared. Or whether Olfa Terras – married to French hedge fund millionaire and philanthropist Guillaume Rambourg – could be the candidate to channel a movement partly inspired by La République En Marche, which brought Emmanuel Macron to the French presidency. Both have found the limelight leading civil society associations, rather than conventional parties. Now, the parties have struck back.

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