In November 2018, faced with the status quo of a political system characterised by cronyism and corruption, Sélim Ben Hassen and his movement launched a vast campaign of participative democracy, so that the people who were deprived of a voice could express themselves and be listened to. In the space of three months, 400,000 people answered the call, with the main preoccupations being the cost of living, unemployment and corruption. Using the results of the consultation, Sélim Ben Hassen and his team drew up a list of 12 measures in a document entitled “The Tunisian roadmap”. In July 2019, it was signed by more than one million people. This was the biggest public consultation in the history of Tunisia.
Sélim Ben Hassen made a number of television and radio appearances to talk about the roadmap and to denounce the increasingly undignified living conditions that were driving young people to their deaths as they tried to cross the Mediterranean on makeshift boats. Although the citizens’ movement that he had found a year before had not indicated that it had any political ambitions, it nevertheless began appearing in opinion polls and, to widespread amazement, was ranked as one of the top three political forces in the country.
In less than a year, Selim Ben Hassen has brought 3ich Tounsi on the podium of voting intentions for the legislative elections
Verdict Wednesday night on the channel Elhiwar on voting intentions for national elections that will take place in less than four months. Not surprisingly, the party of Nabil Karoui is ranked first with 22.9% of the vote, followed by the party Ennahdha which collects 6.9% of the vote.
The surprise comes from the movement 3ich Tounsi, which entered in force in the 6th position in a survey published a week ago, and which has risen in a few days to third place, with 4.6% of the vote, ahead of all political parties in the place.
Selim Ben Hassen, who founded the movement a year ago, is on the way to create the feat, breaking the political codes and building a direct relationship with Tunisians. The 39-year-old does not hesitate to criticize politicians, who are, according to him, “the source of the chaos that the country is experiencing” and promises Tunisians a great collective adventure in which everyone has a role to play.
Still according to Selim Ben Hassen, the rejection of the political class by the Tunisians and the law prohibiting 3ich Tounsi to run for election and which is controversial in the country will give an extra boost to his ambition. A boost that he may not have expected a few weeks ago.
