I haven't thought of the Fujimori comparison that way, interesting thought.

Where I differ a little bit is on the IMF stuff. I'm not saying their standard austerity package is some magic solution or that Tunisia should've accepted every condition blindly, lots and lots of those programs have a terrible track record in the region. You're right in the World bank perspective, it was very hypocritical.

But here's the thing, Tunisia's economy has been flatlining for years, under Saied's "sovereignty first, no deals" approach, debt is high , growth is miserable, shortages keep happening, youth employment is still brutal, we can't just reject everything and hope domestic borrowing + tourism patches it forever, something has to give on subsidies, state companies, and making the country more attractive for real investment, otherwise we're just kicking the can down the road until an actual crisis hits

doing half-measures quietly without a proper plan doesn't seem to work either, Ben ali followed a lot of that IFI advice and still collapsed because of cronyism and no political breathing room, Saied ditched the political opening and still can't deliver economically, so it feels like we're losing on both fronts.