31 Aug 2026
What is the connection between several planned blackouts and yet another shipwreck involving a migrant boat in the Mediterranean Sea? In most countries, probably nothing. In Tunisia, however, the two are connected by a populist and racist authoritarian regime. This is what thousands of protesters have been telling the world in recent weeks, as demonstrations have spread across several Tunisian cities.
August marks the second month of sustained protests in Tunisia. Since mid-July, people in several cities across the country have taken to the streets following a series of planned electricity blackouts, introduced to prevent the collapse of the power system amid the sustained use of air conditioning to cope with extreme heat. At the same time, Tunisians have faced shortages of mineral water and a series of severe wildfires, among the worst in the Mediterranean region. Underlying these immediate grievances is a persistent economic malaise that has characterised Tunisia since the 2011 revolution and has been further aggravated under President Saïed’s rule. Unemployment has risen to 15.6%, while salaries continue to lag behind inflation, which currently stands at 4.9%.
Against this backdrop, on 25 July—the anniversary of Saïed’s suspension of Parliament in 2021, an event that marked Tunisia’s shift from its post-revolutionary democracy towards the authoritarian system established under the 2022 Constitution—thousands of Tunisians rallied in the capital to demand the president’s resignation. Protesters denounced both the country’s democratic backsliding and Saïed’s inability to address its economic challenges. The chant “the people want the fall of the regime” was heard again, more than a decade after the 2011 uprising that brought down Ben Ali’s authoritarian regime.
Elected in the 2019 presidential elections, much of Saïed’s popularity initially derived from his ability to capitalise on widespread discontent with Tunisia’s economic conditions, which contributed to the economic conditions underlying the 2011 uprisings and, in the eyes of many Tunisians, had failed to meet the expectations raised by the subsequent political transition. Saïed offered a populist response to this discontent. He blamed corruption on the post-revolutionary political elite, particularly political parties, and identified a series of internal and external enemies, including migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. In the name of representing the will of the people without unnecessary—or, in his view, potentially harmful—intermediaries, he dismantled democratic institutions and halted the process of democratic state-building that had begun in the aftermath of the revolution. At the same time, he concentrated legislative and executive power in his own hands while undermining judicial oversight.
Many believed that bearing the weight of democratic regression and racist propaganda was worth it if economic conditions improved, but time proved that it was not. This brings us to the second part of the story.
An important pillar of Saïed’s populist rule has been the criminalisation of irregular migration and the promotion of racist rhetoric towards non-Tunisians and Black people. This propaganda has served two purposes. On the one hand, as is often the case with right-wing populist governments, it has helped redirect public attention away from complex structural problems that require solutions the government has so far been unable to provide. On the other hand, the fight against irregular migration has allowed Saïed to continue receiving external funding without easing his authoritarian grip on power. Breaking with Tunisia’s post-revolutionary course, Saïed halted negotiations over an IMF loan, which was conditional on a series of economic reforms, and instead strengthened cooperation with the EU, which has provided financial support in exchange for efforts to prevent migrants from reaching European shores. The agreement has been widely criticised for its implications for human rights.
It is through Saïed’s racist strategy of political legitimation that we can also understand why last week’s shipwreck sparked further outrage in several cities across the country. The target of this anger is not only the poor living conditions that push people—including Tunisians—to take to the sea in search of a better future. It is also the government’s immoral and irresponsible migration policies, which provide inadequate assistance to people in need and contribute to making the Mediterranean one of the world’s deadliest migration routes.
Beyond the meaning and scale of these protests, their very occurrence is remarkable. Protesting in Tunisia has become increasingly risky and can result in imprisonment. The country is now experiencing a harsh crackdown on civil society and the media. Numerous civil society activists, political figures, and journalists have been arbitrarily detained and handed disproportionate sentences. The case of Rached Ghannouchi is particularly illustrative. The leader of the Islamist Ennahdha party and former speaker of Parliament has been sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Yet, at the same time, this new wave of protests is another consequence of this authoritarian regime. With meaningful and peaceful channels of political participation increasingly closed, the grievances and demands of thousands of Tunisians have few avenues through which they can be expressed. This can push protesters towards confrontation with the regime, despite the high costs it may entail. Perhaps, for those taking to the streets today, inaction has become even more costly.
Just five years after the 2011 uprisings, some commentators and scholars wondered why they had produced such modest results. With the exception of Tunisia, which initially experienced a relatively successful transition from authoritarian rule, the waves of protests that shook North Africa and the Middle East led, at best, to a failed transition in Egypt or a government alternation (as in Morocco) and, at worst, to civil war (as in Libya and Syria). Now that Tunisia, too, has fallen into a new spiral of authoritarianism, it would be easy to conclude that the democratic potential of those magnificent uprisings has been completely extinguished.
Yet they left behind an important lesson, one that has become all the more visible in recent weeks: the power of civil society and the crucial political role it can play. The people themselves also learned this lesson, becoming more aware of their political potential and of their ability to mobilise and act collectively when the need arises. The protests we are witnessing today are a reminder that, even under authoritarian rule, this political awareness has not disappeared.
Authors: Valeria Resta, Dublin City University
Copyrights © 2026 | INTERFACED Cookie & Privacy Policy - Tunisia protests Democracy Human rights Civil society political change civic space Webdesign & Development by ALYS