Tunisians mark fifth year of emergency rule with calls for Saied to go

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that thousands of people demonstrated in Tunis on Saturday, July 25, 2026, demanding that President Kais Saied step down as Tunisia marked five years since he assumed emergency powers. Protesters marched along Habib Bourguiba Avenue, a symbolic site of the 2011 uprising, denouncing deteriorating living conditions, restrictions on freedoms and what they described as failures in state management.

The rally came on the anniversary of Saied’s 2021 suspension of parliament, which he later dissolved before governing by decree. According to Al Jazeera, demonstrators carried Tunisian flags and banners rejecting Saied’s “July 25 path,” while chanting slogans calling for freedom, work, dignity and the end of the regime. The protest was initiated by Nafas, an umbrella grouping of opposition parties and independent figures, with participation from prominent opposition leaders.

Opponents accuse Saied of using emergency measures to dismantle parts of Tunisia’s post-2011 democratic transition. Al Jazeera noted that recent years have seen judges dismissed, media-related restrictions tightened and major opposition figures jailed. Among those imprisoned is former parliament speaker and Ennahdha leader Rached Ghannouchi, who was sentenced in June to life plus 30 years on terrorism-related charges and has reportedly suffered health problems in prison.

Saied has defended his actions as necessary to fight corruption and avert disorder, and he denies that rights and freedoms have been rolled back. The protests matter because Tunisia was widely viewed as the main democratic success story to emerge from the Arab Spring, and the continuing confrontation between Saied and his critics reflects deepening political and economic strains.