Mohamed Ghannouchi and from 1999 to 2011 he was the Prime Minister of Tunisia, making him the longest serving prime minister since the proclamation of independence, surpassing his predecessor Hamed Karoui. After the fall of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on 14 January 2011 in the wake of the 2010–2011 Tunisian uprising, he was the self-proclaimed acting President of the country for a few hours starting on 14 January 2011, under Article 56 of the Constitution of Tunisia. He remained Prime Minister for six weeks before stepping down. In a 2006 diplomatic cable from the United States that was leaked by
Tunisian Revolution immolation and the subsequent heavy-handed response by the police to peaceful marchers caused riots the next day in Sidi Bouzid that went largely unnoticed, although social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube featured images of police dispersing youths who attacked shop windows and damaged cars. Bouazizi was subsequently transferred to a hospital near Tunis. In an attempt to quell the unrest President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali visited Bouazizi in hospital on 28 December 2010. Bouazizi died on 4 January 2011. On 28 November 2010, WikiLeaks and five major newspapers (Spain's "El País", France's "Le Monde", Germany's "Der Spiegel",