Tunisia fuel strike highlights growing economic and political anger

SaveSharefacebookxwhatsapp-strokecopylinkPeople protest against rising prices, their declining purchasing power and shortages of basic goods in Tunis, Tunisia, on August 20, 2026. The large banner reads: 'Enough injustice, enough failure' [Ons Abid/AP Photo]By Al Jazeera StaffPublished On 24 Sep 202624 Sep 2026Fuel transport workers in Tunis have launched a 48-hour strike to demand better working conditions, wage increases, the disbursement of previously agreed allowances from 2019 and the settlement of social security dues.Al Jazeera correspondent Saifeddine Bouallegue reported that the strike, organised by the General Federation of Oil and Chemicals and lasting until Thursday, prompted citizens to rush to petrol stations, threatening widespread paralysis in a country that relies almost entirely on trucks for fuel distribution. Khaled Bettin, general manager of the national oil distributor Agil, confirmed that fuel remains available but urged a swift resolution to the strike to avoid further disruptions.Worsening public servicesThe union action coincides with mounting public anger across Tunisia over recurrent electricity and water outages, rising prices and medicine shortages. More than five years after President Kais Saied suspended parliament and began ruling by decree, old grievances are resurfacing as the space for civil society and political dissent narrows significantly.Experts suggested the fuel strike is a symptom of a much broader macroeconomic crisis, characterised by inflation, eroded purchasing power and the state’s inability to secure external funding.Kholoud Toumi, a Tunisian economist, told Al Jazeera that the current situation is the result of overlapping internal and external pressures.“The global economy suffers from an economic crisis and fluctuations in oil and energy prices globally, and this reflects directly on the import bill as well as the economic needs for hard currency,” Toumi told Al Jazeera. “Tunisia suffers from a crisis in providing hard currency, and this reflects on the external balance.”Toumi warned of the severe consequences of the transport stoppage.“This strike came for its main reason, which is the decline in purchasing power and the rise in inflation,” Toumi noted. “The fuel sector is considered one of the sensitive sectors, so a two-day strike will have disastrous results on the Tunisian economy. Any disruption in transport, production and supply raises the cost of activity.”She also noted that the government’s failure to secure foreign funds has forced a reliance on domestic borrowing, which has negatively impacted investment and consumption.Deep structural reformsThe broader economic crisis has reignited debates over reforms that international financial institutions have pushed. Toumi described those reforms as a “medical prescription” the International Monetary Fund had issued but Tunisia’s government had failed to implement so far. The economist said the primary obstacle was opposition from the country’s main trade union, the Tunisian General Labour Union, better known by its French acronym, UGTT. The General Federation of Oil and Chemicals, which is leading the transport strike, is affiliated with the UGTT.However, some analysts framed the current crisis as a legacy of long-term mismanagement and ongoing union disputes rather than recent policy failures.Souhaib al-Mazriqi, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera that the fuel strike stems directly from a conflict between the labour union and the employers union.“The labour union accuses the employers union of reneging on the demands and agreements that were made in 2019,” al-Mazriqi said. “The situation, which we can term as economically and socially constrained, was the result of successive government policies.”Demands for accountabilityOther observers rejected blaming the previous decade for the current public service collapse, pointing directly to the current administration’s monopolisation of power.Ahmed al-Ghiloufi, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera that the government must bear full responsibility for the mounting public anger and lack of transparency.“The fuel sector is the tip of the iceberg of a general and comprehensive crisis,” al-Ghiloufi said, citing statistics from the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights showing that Tunisia in 2026 has witnessed the most protests in a decade. “Those who want to escape responsibility by throwing the ball to previous decades are running away from their responsibility. There is one ruler who rules the country, and he must bear the responsibility.”Al-Ghiloufi also questioned the economic data released by the government and its crackdown on the political opposition.“If we rely on what the government says, I say that governments of this type never give you the correct numbers,” he said. “We live in a closed system that has no transparency and no initiative.”“The major issue is that the current regime does not allow dialogue and considers itself an absolute and sole delegate over the future and fate of this people and does not accept any partnership,” al-Ghiloufi concluded.