Tunisia, 2011 — forced resignation

Event Summary

On 14 January 2011 President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia fled the country after a month of mass protests, the first ruler to fall in what became the Arab Spring. The uprising, later called the Jasmine Revolution, was sparked by the self-immolation on 17 December 2010 of Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor in Sidi Bouzid humiliated by local officials, and was driven by high unemployment, food inflation, corruption, and the absence of political freedom under Ben Ali's 23 year authoritarian rule. Protests spread nationwide despite deadly police crackdowns.

On 14 January Ben Ali dissolved his government, declared a state of emergency, and promised elections within six months, but the concessions failed to quell the demonstrations. With the army having declined to fire on civilians and surrounding the presidential palace, Ben Ali and close family left Tunis by air and, after France refused to let his plane land, flew to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which granted him asylum on condition he stay out of politics. He officially ceased to hold office as power passed to a caretaker government.

Ben Ali was later tried and convicted in absentia for embezzlement and other crimes; Saudi Arabia refused to extradite him, and he died there in 2019. Tunisia went on to become the Arab Spring's one lasting democratic transition.