The 2011 uprisings in North Africa are usually intended as a u-turn in the recent history of the region and an opportunity for social and political change. The scholars usually focused their analysis upon the new and young social forces unleashed by the uprisings, however another relevant trajectory is that related to the losers of the political and social conflicts who did not simply disappears. Ten years after the 2011 uprisings, looking at the defeated elites is important because, in more than one case, they were still playing a role in their countries. In Libya this was the case of al-Qaddafi’s second child Saif al-Islam’s candidature for the presidency of the state at the general elections that were scheduled for December 2021. This fact testifies the multiple continuities of the previous regime and could explain the weakness of the current Libyan transition both in writing the new constitutional charter and in reshaping the political system as well as the idea of nation.