Three months after the start of civil unrest and the flight of the former president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the political situation in Tunisia remains in flux. By early March the transition from dictatorship to democracy seemed to be making progress, but was far from assured--a prolonged period of instability or even a military takeover seemed to be possible, if less likely, outcomes. Public opposition to members of the former regime led to the fall of two interim governments. The third caretaker government, appointed on March 7th, met with wider approval.

The second caretaker government, formed by Mohammed Ghannouchi on January 27th, failed to satisfy protesters because it still contained members of the former regime including Mr Ghannouchi himself. The government was denounced as illegitimate by the Council for the Protection of the Revolution, a group made up of opposition political parties, civil society groups and trade unions, which claimed the right to take over the government and organise elections. Protesters staged a sit-in outside Mr Ghannouchi's office in Tunis, the capital, and assembled a 100,000-strong demonstration, dubbed the "day of rage", on February 26th. Violence erupted between demonstrators and the police and five people were killed. Mr Ghannouchi resigned the following day.