False spring: The end of Tunisia’s revolutionary hopes?

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Fifteen years ago, a Tunisian effect seller, Mohamed Bouazizi, despairing astatine authoritative corruption and constabulary violence, walked to the centre of his hometown of Sidi Bouzid, acceptable himself connected fire, and changed the portion forever.

Much of the anticipation triggered by that enactment lies successful ruins. The revolutions that followed successful Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Syria person outgo the lives of tens and thousands before, successful immoderate cases, giving mode to chaos oregon the instrumentality of authoritarianism.

Burying the hopes of the revolution

Over the pursuing years, arsenic good arsenic temporarily shuttering parliament – lone reopening it successful March 2023 – Saied has rewritten the constitution and overseen a relentless crackdown connected critics and opponents.

“They fundamentally came for everyone; judges, civilian nine members, radical from each governmental backgrounds, particularly the ones that were talking astir unifying an absorption against the coup regime,” Kaouther Ferjani, whose father, 71-year-old Ennahdha person Said Ferjani, was arrested successful February 2023.

In September, Saied said his measures were a continuation of the gyration triggered by Bouzazzi’s self-immolation. Painting himself a antheral of the people, helium railed against nameless “lobbyists and their supporters” who thwart the people’s ambitions.

However, portion galore Tunisians person been cowed into soundlessness by Saied’s crackdown, they person besides refused to instrumentality portion successful elections, present small much than a procession for the president.

In 2014, during the country’s archetypal post-revolution statesmanlike election, astir 61 percent of the country’s voters turned retired to vote.

By past year’s election, turnout had halved.

“Kais Saied’s authoritarian regularisation has definitively buried the hopes and aspirations of the 2011 gyration by systematically crushing cardinal rights and freedoms and putting antiauthoritarian institutions nether his thumb,” Bassam Khawaja, lawman manager astatine Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera English.

In the aftermath of the revolution, galore crossed Tunisia became activists, seeking to impact themselves successful forging what felt similar a caller nationalist identity.

The fig of civilian nine organisations exploded, with thousands forming to lobby against corruption oregon beforehand quality rights, transitional justice, property state and women’s rights.

At the aforesaid time, governmental shows competed for space, debating the absorption the country’s caller individuality would take.

Tunisian President Kais Saied attends a signing ceremonial with Chinese President Xi Jinping (not pictured) astatine the Great Hall of the People connected May 31, 2024 successful Beijing, China. (Photo by Tingshu Wang - Pool/Getty Images)

“It was an astonishing time,” a governmental expert who witnessed the gyration and remains successful Tunisia said, asking to stay anonymous. “Anybody with thing to accidental was saying it.

“Almost overnight, we had hundreds of governmental parties and thousands of civilian nine organisations. Many of the governmental parties shifted oregon merged… but Tunisia retained an progressive civilian society, arsenic good arsenic retaining state of code each the mode up to 2022.”

Threatened by Saied’s Decree 54 of 2022, which criminalised immoderate electronic communication deemed by the authorities arsenic false, disapproval of the ruling elite wrong the media and adjacent connected societal networks has mostly been muzzled.

“Freedom of code was 1 of the fewer lasting benefits of the revolution,” the expert continued.

“The system failed to prime up, services didn’t truly improve, but we had statement and state of speech. Now, with Decree 54, arsenic good arsenic commentators conscionable being arrested for immoderate reason, it’s gone.”

In 2025, some Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch slammed Tunisia’s crackdown connected activists and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs).

In a connection earlier the prosecution of six NGO workers and quality rights defenders moving for the Tunisian Council for Refugees successful precocious November, Amnesty pointed to the 14 Tunisian and planetary NGOs that had their activities suspended by tribunal bid implicit the erstwhile 4 months.

Included were the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women, the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights, the media level Nawaat and the Tunis subdivision of the World Organisation against Torture.

‘Plotting against authorities security’

Dozens of governmental figures from post-revolution governments person besides been arrested, with small interest for enactment affiliation oregon ideology.

In April 2023, 84-year-old Rached Ghannouchi, person of what had been Tunisia’s main governmental bloc, the Ennahdha Party, was arrested connected charges of “plotting against authorities security”.

According to his daughter, Yusra, aft a bid of consequent convictions, Ghannouchi presently faces a further 42 years successful jail.

Later the aforesaid year, Ghannouchi’s main critic, Abir Moussi, the person of the Free Destourian Party, was jailed connected a assortment of charges.

Critics disregard the charges, saying the criteria for apprehension person been the person’s imaginable to rally sentiment against Saied.

“This is not conscionable the lawsuit for my father,” Yusra continued, referring to others, specified arsenic the starring post-coup absorption fig Jawhar Ben Mubarak.

“Other politicians, judges, journalists, and mean citizens … person been sentenced to precise dense sentences, without immoderate evidence, without immoderate respect for ineligible procedures, simply due to the fact that Tunisia has present sadly been taken backmost to the precise aforesaid dictatorship against which Tunisians had risen successful 2010.”

The caput of Tunisia's Islamist question Ennahdha Rached Ghannouchi greets supporters upon accomplishment to a constabulary presumption successful Tunis ,on February 21, 2023, successful compliance to the summons of an investigating judge. (Photo by FETHI BELAID / AFP)

Ghannouchi and Moussi, on with dozens of erstwhile elected lawmakers, stay successful jail. The governmental parties that erstwhile vied for powerfulness successful the country’s parliament are mostly absent.

In their place, since Saied’s revised 2022 constitution weakened parliament, is simply a assemblage that is no longer a menace to the president.

“The aged parliament was incredibly fractious, and did itself fewer favours,” said Hatem Nafti, essayist and writer of Our Friend Kais Saied, a publication criticising Tunisia’s caller regime. He was referring to the ammunition provided to its detractors by a chaotic and occasionally convulsive parliament.

“However, it was democratically elected and blocked authorities that its members felt would harm Tunisia.

“In the caller parliament, members consciousness the request to speech pugnacious and adjacent beryllium rude to ministers,” Nafti continued. “But it’s truly conscionable a performance… Nearly each the members are determination due to the fact that they hold with Kais Saied.”

Hopes that the justness strategy mightiness enactment arsenic a cheque connected Saied person faltered. The president has continued to remodel the judiciary to a plan of his ain making, including by sacking 57 judges for not delivering verdicts helium wanted successful 2022.

By the 2024 elections, that effort appeared complete, with the judicial absorption to his regularisation that remained, successful the signifier of the administrative court, rendered subservient to his personally appointed electoral authority, and the astir superior rivals for the presidency jailed.

“The judiciary is present astir wholly nether the government’s control,“ Nafti continued. “Even nether [deposed President Zine El Abidine] Ben Ali you had the CSM [Supreme Judicial Council], which oversaw judges’ appointments, promotions, and disciplinary matters.

“Now that lone exists connected paper, with the curate of justness capable to find precisely what judges spell wherever and what judgements they’ll deliver.”

Citing what helium said is the “shameful soundlessness of the planetary assemblage that erstwhile supported the country’s antiauthoritarian transition”, Khawaja said: ”Saied has returned Tunisia to authoritarian rule.”