As repression deepens, can Tunisia's opposition bring the country back from the brink?

Middle East Eye

03-05-2025

Last month, Tunisia witnessed several days of brutally repressed protests and a sham trial of over 40 opposition figures, transporting citizens back to the dark days before the revolution.
Protests erupted in Tunisia's central city of Mezzouna on 14 April after three students were killed when a school wall collapsed. Mezzouna lies in the Sidi Bouzid region, the birthplace of the 2011 revolution that toppled the dictatorship of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and ignited the Arab Spring.
The protests continued throughout the week. Shops and schools in the area shut down, while demonstrators burned tyres and chanted angrily against government neglect.
Rather than engaging with residents or the victims' families, the authorities dispatched hundreds of security vehicles.
Security forces used tear gas to disperse gatherings, including mourners paying tribute to their loved ones. Many were injured, with several transferred to nearby hospitals. Electricity was cut, telecommunications were restricted, and reporters were assaulted and prevented from covering the events.
More than a day passed without any official acknowledgement of the tragedy or the mounting public outrage. When President Kais Saied finally gave a televised speech, he offered no sympathy - only astonishment that "the wall had withstood seismic tremors" in the past, while "fate had willed that it collapse at this time".
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Instead of taking responsibility, he ordered the arrest of the school principal who had warned the authorities months earlier about the wall's deteriorating condition.
No accountability
Protests continued both in Mezzouna and in the capital, Tunis, where demonstrators were blocked from reaching the Ministry of the Interior.
Despite dismantling all democratic safeguards, bending the judiciary to his will and jailing his critics, the paradise Saied promised has never materialised
After days of blaming "provocateurs", "traitors" and fate, Saied visited the grief-stricken town at 4am (3am GMT), when few residents were present. Somehow, a few carefully selected individuals appeared to thank him and chant his praises.
He again blamed "traitors" for the town's failing public services and claimed that "troublemakers" had been sent to provoke the security forces.
Popular anger and widespread protests came after nearly four years of repression and zero accountability under Saied, who now controls all power. Protesters know that no minister, governor or representative holds real authority under the one-man regime he has built.
Saied appoints and dismisses prime ministers and ministers at will and has severely repressed political parties, civil society and trade unions.
Since he seized power in a coup in July 2021, he has blamed everyone but himself for the country's decline - the "dark decade" of democracy, corrupt businessmen, opposition politicians, foreign agents and a rotating cast of scapegoats.
But this tactic is losing its effect. He may now be forced to face a population that once believed his populist promises. Despite dismantling all democratic safeguards, bending the judiciary to his will and jailing his critics, the paradise he promised has never materialised.
Tunisians burn tyres and block a road in Mezzouna, Sidi Bouzi, on 15 April 2025, during a protest demanding justice after a school wall collapse killed three students (Saber Sboui/AFP)
Instead, his dictatorship has only exacerbated the country's problems, with inflation and poverty reaching unprecedented levels.
Yet, Saied's response to this growing realisation has been to double down on his populist narrative of blaming traitors and conspirators, while further relying on security forces and subservient sections of the judiciary to repress any criticism or challenge to his disastrous rule.
Sham justice
Last week's sham verdicts against 40 opponents for "conspiring against state security" have further illustrated the regime's desperation.
Over 40 defendants were sentenced, many after spending over two years in pre-trial detention. My sister, an academic who has never been politically active nor had any contact with the other defendants, found herself added to the list and sentenced to 33 years in prison.
The sole evidence presented by the state prosecution for the alleged "conspiracy against state security" consisted of WhatsApp messages and meetings with foreign journalists and diplomats.
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With no trial in sight after years in detention, some of the defendants began a hunger strike, including Jaouhar Ben Mbarek, a leading member of the National Salvation Front, and Ennahda MP Said Ferjani.
Sentences were handed down less than a minute after the hearing began, ranging from four to 66 years. Defendants were barred from attending their own trial, while journalists, observers and family members were turned away from the courtroom.
Defence lawyers denounced the absurd conditions and blatant violations of legal procedure. To add a foreign twist to the plot, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy was included among the defendants and also sentenced to 33 years in prison.
The lightest sentence - four years - was given to a man who had merely parked his car outside the home of opposition figure Khayam Turki, a person he had never met.
Turki, a social-democrat politician, received the harshest sentence: 66 years. His crime? Organising meetings with other opposition figures to discuss how to unite their ranks and find a way out of Tunisia's political crisis after Saied's coup.
Two days later, Ahmed Souab, a prominent former judge and member of the defence team, was arrested at his home for statements he made in court.
Around 100 other opposition figures, journalists, activists and civil servants have also been charged under vague accusations in dozens of other cases.
Among them is former Prime Minister Ali Larayedh, who has been held in pre-trial detention since December 2022.
My father, Rached Ghannouchi, faces charges in more than a dozen separate legal cases.
At the age of 83, he has already been sentenced to a total of 27 years in sham trials he refused to attend - fully aware that judicial decisions are pre-determined under Saied's orders.
A country unravelling
Saied appears to have no solution for the country's soaring debt, rising unemployment and rampant inflation. Many Tunisians are struggling to afford basic necessities, while the government itself faces unprecedented food shortages, power outages and water cuts.
Under the current regime, Tunisia has recorded its lowest economic growth in a decade - apart from the first pandemic year of 2020 - amid dwindling external funding and rising domestic borrowing.
As my father wrote from prison: 'The only solution lies in responsible freedom, inclusive justice and democracy based on equal rights for all'
Economic collapse and political repression have deepened public despair, fuelling a brain drain that increased by 28 percent last year, as thousands of Tunisians leave in search of safety and dignity elsewhere.
Yet, while European governments express concern over Saied's 2021 coup, they continue to back him despite his failure to address the very crises he exploited to justify his power grab.
As my father wrote from prison on the second anniversary of his unjust detention: "The only solution lies in responsible freedom, inclusive justice, and democracy based on equal rights for all."
The question now is whether Saied's indiscriminate repression will prompt the opposition to overcome their differences and political calculations to unite their ranks to restore democracy and bring Tunisia back from the brink of disaster.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.