Thousands of opposition supporters in Tunisia have demonstrated in the capital to call on President Qais Sayed to step down amid the ongoing economic crisis.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondents, separate rallies of various opposition groups were held in Tunisia with a large police presence.
They are being held on the 12th anniversary of the fall of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali amid deepening political divisions and deteriorating economic conditions in the North African nation.
“People want what you don’t want. So down with Said,” protesters chanted at a major demonstration organized by Tunisia’s most prominent opposition force, the National Salvation Front (FSN), which includes Said’s nemesis, the Islamist-inspired organization Ennahdha. the consignment.
Ennadha dominated parliament until Saeed launched a dramatic power grab on 25 July 2021, sacking the government and freezing parliament before appointing a new cabinet and passing a decree.
Tunisians, who largely supported Said’s rise to power in 2021, are growing weary of rising inflation and poverty affecting about 20 percent of the country’s 12 million population, according to the government.
“The coup brought us hunger and poverty. Yesterday, the grocer gave me just one kilo of pasta and a can of milk,” said Nukha, a woman who participated in a major protest over a shortage of basic commodities.
“How can I feed my family of 13 with this?” lamented the 50-year-old housewife.
Protesters at a separate left-wing march nearby denounced Syed’s “authoritarian current” which threatens the only democracy that emerged from the “Arab Spring” uprisings.
Some chanted slogans echoing the ideas of the 2011 uprising and demanded to “work,” AFP correspondents said, as unemployment hovered above 15 percent.
“Unbearable Deficit”
Omar, 27, an unemployed former supporter of Said at a major National Salvation Front rally, said the president had “betrayed” Tunisians.
“And this is the result: an economic crisis, an unbearable shortage of milk, no milk in our refrigerators,” said Omar, who asked to be called by his first name.
As the cash-strapped Tunisian state, which has a monopoly on certain imports, has found it difficult to deliver essential goods, Tunisians have faced food shortages, including coffee, milk and sugar.
Struggling with debts worth about 80 percent of its gross domestic product, Tunisia reached an agreement in principle with the International Monetary Fund on a bailout package worth about $2 billion in mid-October, but it is still awaiting final approval.
Another Saturday march, attended by hundreds of people, was led by Abir Moussi of the opposition Free Desturian party.
The “Syed regime” is responsible for the economic crisis, Musi told the crowd, calling for his resignation.
A former law professor and political outsider, Said became Tunisia’s second democratically elected president in 2019 after the ouster of Ben Ali.
