Tunisia's struggle to mitigate widespread bread shortages risks eroding its authoritarian president's popularity, triggering social unrest, and delaying the disbursement of needed funds from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). On Aug. 19, the Tunisian government announced that it would resupply flour to private bakeries after withholding supplies for two weeks, in an attempt to ease a strike complicating the ongoing bread shortage in the North African country. The announcement came several days after authorities arrested the bakeries' union head Mohamed Bouanane on Aug. 16 for alleged ''monopoly and speculation with subsidized foodstuffs,'' in an apparent effort to use the union head as a scapegoat for the widespread bread shortages in the country. On Aug. 1, President Saied also fired Prime Minister Najla Bouden and replaced her with Ahmed Hachani, a former central bank executive. While the presidential office gave no official reason for the shake-up, observers widely suspect the move...
