Thousands of protesters angry at Tunisia's economic crisis and the president's increasingly authoritarian drift marched on Saturday through the capital, responding to a call from opposition parties to mark 12 years since Tunisian protesters unleashed Arab Spring uprisings around the region. The protest followed disastrous parliamentary elections last month in which just 11% of voters cast ballots. The elections are meant to replace and reshape a legislature that President Kais Saied dissolved in 2021. The second round has been set for Jan. 29. The country is going through a major economic crisis, with inflation and joblessness on the rise, the AP reports. Tunisians have been hit with soaring food prices and shortages of fuel and staples like sugar, vegetable oil, and rice in recent months.
The National Salvation Front, a coalition of five opposition parties, including the popular Islamist opposition party Ennahdha, had called for the march in central Tunis. The Habib Bourguiba avenue, the main artery of the capital and a key site for the revolution, had been placed under high security, with metal barriers, drones, and surveillance cameras in place to monitor the crowd. Demonstrators shouting "Kais Saied, go out" and "No to dictatorship, yes to dialogue and democracy," amid other mottos, were prevented from getting close to the Interior Ministry. The President of the Tunisian Human Rights League, Bassem Trifi, said authorities barred protesters from other cities from taking part in the march.
Prominent opposition politician Ahmed Nejib Chebbi said, "Tunisia's salvation can only come through Kais Saied's departure." The head of the Workers' Party, Hamma Hammami, said, "Kais Saied will either end up in prison or flee abroad. His dictatorial regime will fall, like the one of ousted President Ben Ali." On Jan. 14, 2011, then-President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was forced out of power, transforming the country into a budding democracy that inspired the Arab Spring. Ben Ali died in 2019. "We are here to say 'stop' to the process of destruction of the state engaged by Kais Saied," said Abassi Hammami, head of the National Committee for the Protection of Freedoms. "We must open new perspectives for our country." Saied, who was elected in 2019, has curbed the independence of the judiciary and weakened parliament's powers.
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