Post-revolution discontent fuels ongoing protests in Tunisia

While some Tunisians nostalgically recall Ben Ali-era stability and stronger livelihoods, others see his rule as the repression that made the revolution necessary.

Thousands of protesters in Tunis are demanding President Kais Saied’s resignation over living conditions, democratic backsliding, and political prisoners while electricity shortages and a water crisis plague the North African country. Saied continues to frame his opponents as “conspirators,” but public anger is mounting due to economic decline, rolling blackouts, and a loss of liberties.

A recent opposition-led march drew an estimated 2,500 demonstrators chanting against Saied amid severe heatwave-related blackouts and mounting rights concerns. Forty-four percent of Tunisians identify the economy as the country’s most important challenge, and roughly two-thirds view current economic conditions as bad or very bad, according to Arab Barometer, a self-described non-partisan research network. At the same time, 78% indicate that the form of government matters less to them if it successfully resolves the country’s economic problems.

The public

The views of citizens reflect a broader divide over Tunisia’s post-2011 trajectory: While some nostalgically recall Ben Ali-era stability and stronger livelihoods, others see his rule as the repression that made the revolution necessary. 

“The revolution was a failure by all standards. We lost a great leader: [Zine El Abidine Ben Ali]. And we have now been stuck for 15 years,” Mohamed Sayedin, a Tunisian local, told Atlas Broadcasting. “The country has not returned to a normal state and won't do so for a long time.”

For many Tunisians, life became economically difficult after the 28-day revolution, with rising prices and lower salaries.

“Anyone who is retired with a pension or renting a house just can’t keep up. Tunisia has become very expensive; we wish things would get a bit cheaper so everyone could live equally,” Mona Naanaa, a 46-year-old from Hammamet, said.

Naanaa described her longing for her city prior to the revolution. Her nostalgia for the pre-revolution era, however, does not translate into rejection of Saied. “President Kais Saied is also standing firm and doing his absolute best in Tunisia…,” she said. “We really love him and hope he always brings us improvements.” 

For others, the professional toll has been severe. Habib, a tourism worker, contrasted his current reality with the past: “Under Ben Ali, we used to work three hours and go home in peace to feed our children. Now we stay from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. without making a single sale.” 

Pre vs post-revolution

Saied’s enduring support reflects deep frustration with Tunisia’s post-revolution order, while growing economic and political grievances increasingly challenge his once-powerful appeal. 

“Saied’s discourse about corruption, foreign interference, and conspiracies retains resonance with part of the population,” Patricia Karam, a non-resident fellow at the Arab Center think tank in Washington, DC, said.

“By 2019, and especially by 2021, many Tunisians had come to associate parliamentary democracy not with accountable government but with political paralysis, corruption, partisan infighting, and declining living standards.”

Daniel Brumberg, director of Democracy and Governance Studies at Georgetown University, noted that Saied effectively "leveraged and manipulated this disenchantment to push his agenda of a one-man rule backed by the military and security apparatus."

However, Brumberg warns that growing dissatisfaction now spans across the middle class, business owners, and even parts of Saied’s original base. 

Democratic trajectories 

Tunisia’s growing political and economic discontent raises questions about the country’s democratic future and the resilience of its institutions. While two-thirds of Tunisians prefer a democracy, large majorities want a strong leader or prioritise economic delivery and order over the form of the government. 

“The post-2011 political class failed to reconcile those demands,” Karam of the Arab Center explained. “Saied responded by arguing that stronger, more centralised authority could deliver what a fragmented democracy could not. The danger, however, is that Tunisia ends up with the worst of both models: fewer democratic freedoms without a more capable or prosperous state.”

Georgetown's Brumberg pointed to the rapid dismantling of the judicial system, particularly the "striking failure of the courts in Tunisia to support democracy and defend human rights.”

“[Saied] created a revamped system that drew on their authoritarian past to reimpose them as an adjunct of executive power,” Brumberg said, describing the push for democracy as a stalled, generational project.

For Karam, rebuilding democratic politics will eventually require more than restoring the institutions that existed before 2021. “It will require addressing the governance and socioeconomic failures that made so many Tunisians willing to see those institutions swept aside in the first place,” she said.