one month after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Syrians benefit from the new regime's first measures

A little over a month after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, if the country still breathes newfound freedom, it faces enormous challenges. The HTS Islamists have made initial decisions that bring comfort to the hearts of the population.

The stalls are overflowing at the popular Souk el Al market in Damascus. Prices are starting to fall. Zahra wears a broad smile. “We buy things we’ve never been able to taste beforeshe explains. Even bananas, we brought them home but it was just for babies or small children. We adults didn't eat it. The pressure we constantly felt has vanished. Even the sky has become sky again.”

Bananas, but also kiwis, sugar cane, pineapples… Rare products from the time of the diet have reappeared at affordable prices. Traders are, for the moment, exempt from taxes.

Zeynab, who runs a small fruit and vegetable stand, says she is relieved to no longer be extorted by the regime: “There was a weight on our hearts: injustice and oppression. The rent for the stands, all that, thank God, we are rid of it. We are free to speak, the dollar has fallen. All that is is better. No more rent. And before, the police came and helped themselves for free…”she testifies.

Among the most popular measures was the announcement of the quadrupling of civil servants' salaries and the end of compulsory military service. “Thank God it’s a relief for us young peopleunderlines Fadi, a student at the University of Damascus. All of us students suffered because of this military service, because of the unknown that weighed on our future. You didn't know after graduation where you would go, in the service or abroad, and to which country. Now we can look forward to having a future in our country.”

Of course, water is only available for a few hours a day and electricity is rare, but that doesn't bother Tala. “The electricity is very bad but the head of government made us promises. Do you think that everything can change in one night? That he can bring all the lights back to Damascus like that? Everything in its time. The other destroyed the country, it burned everything. We have to be patient.

You will still have to be patient. The government must also prove itself to reassure all communities and pacify a country still prey to violence.