The anti-government protests that led to the ousting of the former president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, and the fall of the first two interim governments had largely ended by end-March, although the security presence in central Tunis, the capital, remained heavy. Attempts by protesters to stage a new sit-in outside government offices in central Tunis at the start of April were blocked by police, demonstrating a determination on the part of the interim prime minister, Béji Caid Essebsi, to end what he called the "recreation" of street protests that had stopped the country getting back to work. However, political unrest has been replaced by social and economic turmoil, as the revolutionary fervour has been directed at employers, managers and rivals for jobs. Workers in both the public and the private sectors have used their new-found sense of freedom to stage wildcat strikes and sit-ins to back demands for higher wages, better conditions and the dismissal of unpopular managers, especially if those managers belonged to the former ruling party, the Rassemblement constitutionnel démocratique (RCD). The economic disruption caused by social unrest is serious and makes it even more unlikely that expectations of more jobs and higher wages will be met. Moreover, a sense of insecurity has continued to plague the country as many police officers have still not returned to work.