Politics "Banker to the poor" Yunus governs Bangladesh on an interim basis

After weeks of unrest in Bangladesh with many deaths and the flight of authoritarian Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus is to bring peace back to his home country. Shortly after his return from a stay in France, the 84-year-old, also known as the "banker of the poor", was sworn in as interim head of government with the backing of the powerful military. Yunus is to remain in power until new elections are held. It was initially unclear when these would take place. He is the preferred candidate of the participants in the mass protests against the government.

Hopes rest on Yunus

The economic expert Yunus - a staunch critic of former Prime Minister Hasina - has high hopes of being able to lead the country of more than 170 million people out of the crisis.

Bangladesh could fulfill the promise of a rebirth, said Yunus after his arrival at the airport in the capital Dhaka, where he was received by army chief Waker-uz-Zaman and leaders of the student protests. There is hope that the youth can build up the country. "Bangladesh can be a wonderful country." He called out to his compatriots that the nation must be protected from violence.

The transitional government has an opportunity to lead Bangladesh back towards real democracy, says expert Thomas Kean from the non-governmental Crisis Group. He expects Yunus to want to implement political and economic reforms. However, this could be difficult if the Bangladesh Nationalist Party - the second largest party alongside Hasina's Awami League - pushes for new elections to be held quickly.

The long-time head of government resigned on Monday following mass protests and deadly clashes between demonstrators and security forces and fled to India in a military helicopter. According to local media, more than 400 people have died in the protests since July.

Following Hasina's escape, the decision in favor of Yunus was made at a meeting between President Mohammed Shahabuddin and representatives of the protest movement and the military. According to observers, the armed forces had recently held de facto power in the South Asian country.

Even after the resignation of the head of government and the plans for a transitional government, there were still reports of sporadic violence. There were deaths, most of which were supporters of Hasina's Awami League, according to reports. A number of police stations were also burned down. At the same time, students took over some police duties. They regulated traffic at several intersections in the capital, for example. Others cleaned walls of graffiti directed against the former government.

Inventor of microcredits

Yunus is the inventor of microcredit. With his Grameen Bank, founded in the 1980s, he granted small loans to poor people who would otherwise not have received normal bank loans so that they could become self-employed. He found imitators all over the world: when Yunus received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, there were micro-lenders in more than 100 countries.

The issue of poverty also played an important role in the protests. Despite an economic upturn under Hasina - the country has the second largest textile industry in the world - many people are struggling to make ends meet: Unemployment and inflation are high. Due to a planned, controversial quota system in the civil service, many demonstrators feared that access to coveted jobs was in danger, which triggered the protests. Although the Supreme Court largely reversed the regulation, the protests against the government continued.

Opportunities for the country

Instead of addressing the concerns, Hasina attempted to crush the protests with all severity. She ordered curfews, temporarily blocked the internet and deployed the police and military. As a result, the protests spread further and further and the demonstrators demanded Hasina's resignation, who had been at the helm of the country for the past 15 years without interruption.

Human rights organizations accused Hasina of rigging elections and targeting her opponents. She had thousands arrested during her time in office.

At the time, the 76-year-old also criticized Nobel Prize winner Yunus for "sucking the blood out of the poor" with his microloan interest rates. After he showed political ambitions and founded his own party "Power of Citizens" in 2007, an open dispute arose. Yunus was later dismissed as director of the Grameen Bank. Just this year, he faced a conviction for violating labor laws, which his supporters saw as a politically motivated attempt to silence him.