President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali sto frem på tv torsdag og lovet nasjonen at han ikke skulle søke gjenvalg. Supportere fylte raskt gatene med tutende biler. Men er det nok? Lar folk seg avspise med løfter?

En menneskerettsaktivist advarte mot å tro på tomme løfter. Men forbausende mange av opposisjonslederne mente talen var et skritt i riktig retning.

BBCs Adam Mynott forteller om et omslag i stemningen: den er fylt av frykt. Både folk og regime merker at de står ved avgrunnen – og begge nøler.

Det er ingen tvil om at protestene har dreide seg om langt mer enn presidentens embetstid. Den har dreid seg om en fundamental følelse av å være sviktet, at myndighetene ikke bryr seg.

Tunisia has a developed education system, with compulsory free education for all up to the age of 16.

This has pushed thousands of bright, well-educated young people onto a job market which cannot accommodate them.

The economy is incapable of providing enough work.

Prices of basic foodstuffs have soared. At a fish market I visited in the capital, there were few shoppers and traders told me that ordinary people on low incomes cannot afford the prices.

«They have gone up two or three times in the past few months,» I was told.

The incendiary ingredient has been corruption.

President Ben Ali and his immediate family and close followers are accused of grabbing all the political and economic power.

I spoke to a group of young men standing on a street corner in the poor suburb of Ettadamen in Tunis.

‘Grabbing power’
«We have no work,» they said, adding that «the government doesn’t care about us at all».

«All they are interested in is grabbing all the power and all the money. Of course we are protesting – wouldn’t you?»

Those protests, which appear to be growing in intensity every day, show no signs of stopping.

Sellami Nejib, a senior figure involved in secondary education in Tunis, said the government does not understand how to behave in a democratic way.

«The protesters have tried to express their views on the street, to complain about the democratic system. And the response of the police has been to kill them – to fire bullets into the heads and chests.

«That’s no way for a responsible government to respond.»