Tunisia’s struggle for democracy isn't over 10 years after the revolution, patronage and populism rule the country. But Tunisians want a deeper form of democracy Reuters Read this article in German. It’s been a bit more than 10 years since longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled Tunisia – on 14 January 2011. In short order, several other despots also took to their heels. The ‘Arab Spring’ had begun and was to change the region for once and for all. Wars and bloody counterrevolutions followed. But of all the countries whose citizens rose up, only Tunisia is still carrying the banner of democracy. But for how much longer is the question. Its citizens, too, have long since become disenchanted.