Ben Ali Indicates He Won't Run Again, Echos de Gaulle's "Je vous ai compris"

Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in his third national address (link is to French text) since the troubles began just four weeks ago, has promised to lift censorship, end blockage of the Internet, and has said he will not seek to amend the constitution to permit himself to run again in 2014. (The current age limit for the Presidency is 75, and Ben Ali is now 74.He had previously amended the Constitution to raise the age from seventy and permit multiple terms.) Whether Ben Ali can hold on until 2014 is unclear. Reportedly though restrictions on Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and other social media have already been lifted, and Ben Ali has ordered the security forces only to fire in self-defense.

It has been a strange day. Reports from Hammamet indicate the beach resort town, where many of the elite have villas, is under the control of demonstrators and many buildings have been burned. Someone claiming to be Foreign Minister Kamel Morjane posted his resignation on the Foreign Ministry website, resigning in protest, though the government is saying that the resignation is not genuine. There have reportedly been deaths in downtown Tunis.

Historical note: though Ben Ali spoke in Arabic (and used Tunisian colloquial Arabic more than is usual in his speeches (you can watch it in Arabic here) the French text is given as "Je vous ai compris. Je vous ai tous compris." (I have understood you.) That is likely to make many North Africans think of Charles de Gaulle's famous "Je vous ai compris" speech of March 1958, when, speaking to a crowd of pieds noirs (European settlers in Algeria), de Gaulle famously proclaimed that he "had understood" them:



The pieds noirs, not without reason, thought de Gaulle was telling them he was on their side.

Four years later, Algeria became independent. Draw your own conclusions.