Bread, Debt and Politics Whip Up Volatile Mix in Tunisia
The war in Ukraine is accelerating an economic crisis in the birthplace of the Arab Spring
A worker gives a customer change at a bakery in the Ettadhamoun district of Tunis, Tunisia, on April 8.
Photographer: Chedly Ben Ibrahim/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Across North Africa, bakeries are providers of subsidized daily sustenance and a barometer of the public mood.
So when Tunisian President Kais Saied sought to counter reports that food staples like flour had become scarce as Russia’s war on Ukraine deepened his country’s economic crisis, a seemingly well-stocked Tunis bread maker, where he used to shop, made for a useful backdrop.