“The people want what you don't want.
Down with Saied.
Get out, get out.
Thousands of opponents demonstrated in Tunis on Saturday against the concentration of power in the hands of President Kais Saied, a discontent amplified by shortages and an economic crisis, exactly 12 years after the fall of dictator Ben Ali.
The watchword of the main demonstration, organized by the National Salvation Front (FSN), was the denunciation of a "dictatorship" established by the president after a "coup d'etat" on July 25, 2021.
But many demonstrators on the very central Avenue Bourguiba - estimated at several thousand by observers, at 1,300 by official sources - also intended to protest against the deterioration of the economic situation.
“The coup brought us famine and poverty.
Yesterday, the grocer gave me just 1 kilo of macaroni and a liter of milk.
How can I feed my family of 13 with this, ”denounced to AFP Nouha, 50, a housewife, who was demonstrating with the FSN.
The country ruled by decrees
"The people want what you don't want," chanted the activists, including many sympathizers of the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, which dominated Parliament before Kais Saied seized all power in the summer of 2021. Deeming the country ungovernable, Kais Saied then dismissed his Prime Minister and froze Parliament.
Since then, he has appointed a government but runs the country by decree.
He also reformed the Constitution this summer to strengthen his powers to the detriment of Parliament.
A decried legislative election is underway to elect an Assembly that will be devoid of real powers.
Despite similar goals, the opposition parties did not form a common front at all on Saturday, with three separate rallies in the capital.
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After having forced security barriers and a tense face to face with imposing police forces, the thousands of people mobilized by the FSN dispersed calmly at the start of the afternoon, according to AFP.
In the DSF demonstration, Omar, a 27-year-old unemployed man, presented himself as a disappointed voter of President Saied, a constitutional lawyer new to politics, elected by almost 73% in 2019. “He betrayed us.
This is the result: an economic crisis.
An unbearable shortage, no milk in our fridge,” he said.
"That's enough, we're fed up": Thouraya Chtiba, doctor, calls Kais Saied to account in the face of "soaring prices" and the high cost of living: "in a year and a half he has monopolized all the authorities and institutions and he did nothing”.
An unemployment rate above 15%
Tunisians, who had largely supported Mr. Saied's coup, are increasingly unhappy with the deterioration of their living conditions, with inflation above 10%, and poverty affecting 20% of the population. 12 million inhabitants.
As the highly indebted state has had difficulty financing the importation of basic products of which it has a monopoly, the shortages of milk, sugar, coffee and recently pasta are chronic.
In a demonstration by left-wing parties in the city center, some activists brandished chopsticks while denouncing an “authoritarian drift” by the president, while others took up one of the slogans of the 2011 Revolution, demanding “work” faced with an unemployment rate above 15%.
A third procession demonstrated in several districts of Tunis at the call of Abir Moussi, the leader of the Free Destourian Party, an anti-Islamist movement that claims heritage from Ben Ali and President Bourguiba, the hero of independence. (1956).
Civil society, until recently rather shy, also mobilized in front of the headquarters of the journalists' union SNJT, which is worried about a new law cracking down on "fake news".
Dozens of NGO activists defending rights (human and economic) were present.
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On the sidelines of these protests in which it did not participate, the powerful UGTT trade union center made its voice heard via its leader Noureddine Taboubi: "the crucial hour is approaching" for the presentation of an initiative to "save the country".