Zine El Abidine Ben Ali favoured the latter. In conformity with Article 57 of the Tunisian Constitution, the peaceful transition occurred. The country had faced 10% inflation, external debt accounting for 46% of GDP and a debt service ratio of 21% of GDP. In 1999 Fulvio Martini, former head of Italian military secret service SISMI, declared to a parliamentary committee that "In 1985–1987 we organized a kind of "golpe" in Tunisia, putting president Ben Ali as head of state, replacing Burghiba (the Italian spelling of the name) who wanted to flee". Bourguiba, although a symbol of anti-colonial resistance, was considered incapable of leading his country
Aftermath of the Bahraini uprising (July–December 2011) into Manama with their cars on 21 September. Protesters managed to slow traffic to a crawl during rush hour but the protest was largely unsuccessful, with delays at the time not noticeably different from normal rush-hour waits. Addressing an opposition rally in Tubli, a village south of Manama, Sheikh Ali Salman, head of the Al Wefaq party said, "when we talk about democracy we want democracy like that of Westminster, France, and America, not the democracy of Saddam Hussein, nor the democracy of Zine El Abidine, nor the democracy of Gadhafi." The 14 February Youth Coalition planned protests on 23