Thousands of Tunisians protested against the president on the anniversary of the revolution

On the anniversary of a crucial day in the 2011 revolution that brought democracy, thousands of demonstrators marched in central Tunis against the assumption of nearly all authority by Tunisian President Kais Saied. They demanded that he resign.

A Reuters reporter saw thousands of people carrying Tunisian flags and shouting, “The people want the regime to go!” on the main Habib Bourguiba Avenue, which is where large protests usually happen.

In the street in front of the Interior Ministry building, there were still water cannons and a large police presence.

“The present is the most hazardous period in Tunisia’s history.” Saied seized all power and fought against democracy. The economy is in free fall. “We won’t keep quiet,” said 34-year-old protester Said Anouar Ali.

Despite early attempts by the authorities to keep multiple rival protests that had been called by various political parties and civil society organisations apart, protesters surged through police and metal barricades to reach the avenue.

“Saied was not present when we were in Bourguiba in January 2011, but he is now denying us access to Bourguiba. Whatever the cost, we’ll get there “before the mob broke down the walls,” Chaima Issa, an activist who took part in the 2011 revolution, stated.

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After being prohibited from marching near the presidential palace in Carthage, a significant opposition political party that was supportive of the dictatorship in place prior to the revolution organised a separate assembly in downtown Tunis.

Sayed disbanded the elected parliament in 2021 and started to reform the political system, but the low turnout for the election of a new, largely ineffectual legislature in December demonstrated little support for his reforms.

At the same time, the economy is falling apart and stores are running out of necessities. The government hasn’t been able to get a global bailout yet, even though the state’s finances are about to go bankrupt.

The majority of political parties, as well as the labour union and many other influential groups, now oppose Saied’s idea and label it an anti-democratic coup.

But they haven’t been able to fix the deep philosophical and personal differences that have kept them apart for so long and kept them from putting up a united front.

The largest party, the Islamist Ennahda, is nevertheless rejected by many parties as having a role. The influential UGTT labour union wants to have a national conversation but won’t allow any parties who accuse Saied of staging a coup.

The demonstrations coincide with the 12th anniversary of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali’s overthrow, which is observed as the anniversary of the revolution by the majority of Tunisian political parties and civil society organisations.

But Saied changed the official anniversary date on his own, and he has said that he thinks January 14 was the day the revolution went off track.

Although Saied’s critics have not faced significant repression and the police have generally tolerated anti-Said demonstrations, their handling of those on January 14 of last year drew harsh criticism from human rights groups.

Reuters