SCOTT SIMON, Host:
Eleanor, thanks for being with us.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: With pleasure, Scott.
SIMON: And help us understand what life is like there in Tunis since the departure of President Ben Ali and what people are saying and doing.
BEARDSLEY: I did talk to a couple people and it seems mixed right now. Some people are very happy. They say we're going to have the democracy we wanted. They're so happy that Ben Ali has fled. But others are fearful because they see that there's been looting and, you know, a lot of stores were burned. The train station was burned last night. And so they fear that there could be a clamp-down even harder now. One thing is sure - there are a lot of police out, so it's still very, very tense.
SIMON: Yesterday Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi said that he'd temporarily take over for the president. But I gather that now seems to be in doubt. So what's the direction of the leadership of the country?
BEARDSLEY: That's right. Apparently that would have maybe given the possibility for Ben Ali to come back. What happened is that's not in the constitution. Now the speaker of the House, a person called Fouad Mebazaa, is going to take over. And it's in Tunisia's constitution, there must be elections within 60 days. So I spoke with actually someone who's head of one of the main opposition parties. He's been in Paris for 10 years. He is very excited. He's coming back, he said, Tuesday, and he's going to run to be in the government. He says if there are real and fair elections and they go by our constitution, this is fine. And he says with the speaker of the House in charge and elections in 60 days, that is completely in line with what they should do with the constitution.
SIMON: Eleanor, how does this affect the region potentially?
BEARDSLEY: Well, you know, I was reading and it said the last time a leader in the Arab world was chased from power was in 1985 in the Sudan. So this time around there's Al Arabiya, there's Al-Jazeera - everyone has been watching it nonstop on these cable channels. There's actually an Egyptian guy staying in our hotel and he says this is big, this is sort of a wake-up call. You know, Arab leaders realize - because a lot of them are also keeping their populations clamped down, there's corruption, it's the same thing. There's a lot of young people unemployed. So they're nervously watching this and they know their populations are seeing it, so they are taking heed. I mean it could be a lesson for them. So people are - you know, for the first time all the Arab world is watching what's going on in the neighboring countries, so they're definitely going to draw some lessons from what happened in Tunisia.
SIMON: And what should we watch for next?
BEARDSLEY: Well, I spoke to this opposition leader again and he said what's going on right now - and I felt this, Scott - is the police of Ben Ali are trying to create fear and chaos on the streets with the looting and things. And I was actually interrogated by - he looked like a civilian but it was one of these young police. They want Ben Ali to come back, which isn't going to happen, but they're trying to sew chaos to make it look like the country can't live without him, to make it look like thugs overthrew the regime. And so right now it's really insecure out there on the streets. But what we're looking for next is, you know, the speaker of the House to probably talk to the nation and for them to set an election date and for the violence to calm down and for people to go about living again. But right now it's still very tense. People are waiting to see what's going to happen next.
SIMON: Eleanor Beardsley in Tunis. Thanks so much.
BEARDSLEY: Great to be with you, Scott.