Tunisia marked its freedom last week with continuing protests for citizens’ rights amid growing divisions between the country’s leaders
A protest in Bardo, Tunisia, January 26. Image credit: Hasan Mrad/Shutterstock
Tunisians are protesting against high unemployment rates, poverty, and corruption, in addition to national lockdowns and state repression. Tensions have been growing since the 2019 election. Last month, there were clashes between the president, prime minister, and parliament speaker about a power reshuffle.
This comes more than a decade after the Tunisian Revolution, which sparked the Arab Spring. Although Tunisia emerged from it with a democratic government, the split election in 2019 left the public feeling unsupported. This could be worsened by President Kais Saied’s proposal to transform the current shared power system into a presidency.
Demonstrators first took to the streets on January 15 in Siliana, northwestern Tunisia, fighting to save their democracy. Though officially banned on January 23, protests are continuing nonetheless, leading to more than 1,000 arrests.
“Tunisians were the real inspiration for everyone. They were lucky and overthrew the regime quite peacefully and quickly,” says Ali Reza, an Iranian based in Washington DC, on the Arab Spring. Without this stability, he believes that there isn’t much hope for Iran, Syria, or any other nations involved in the uprisings.
Saied won his presidency in a landslide election in 2019, recently stating: “I am not ready to back down from my principles.” As thousands of Tunisians continue to protest across the country, their once-secured freedom is now at risk of being taken away by authoritarian rule.