Since he took power in 2019, President Kais Saied has followed an Algerian blueprint to destroy checks and balances, backtracking on Arab Spring assets that once made Tunisia a democratic country. Nothing depicts the vassalization of Tunisia by Algeria than the recent election, won by Kais Saied with 90.7% of the votes, with his main rival Ayachi Zammel in jail. Just like Algeria, much of the opposition boycotted the Tunisian election, calling it sham. Since taking power, Saied indulged in a populism that echoed Algerian conspiracy theories in pinning many self-inflicted economic woes on Israel and the “invisible foreign hand”. Kais Saied regime has even allowed Algerian agents to arrest refugee Slimane Bohafs, a Kabyle independence leader, in 2021.

Source: The North Africa Journal October 09, 2024 11:17 UTC