Thousands of Tunisians demonstrated in the capital, Tunis, on Saturday, October 17, to protest the high cost of living and the deterioration of public services, and to demand the restoration of democracy and respect for freedoms.
The demonstration came at the invitation of several organizations, including the Tunisian General Labor Union, the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights, the National Association of Lawyers, and the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists, under the slogan “Tunisia first... and the people above all else.”
The participants set out from Mohammed Ali Square, where the Tunisian General Labor Union is headquartered, towards Habib Bourguiba Street, one of the most prominent sites of the protests that preceded the fall of former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.
Reuters news agency described the demonstration as the largest against the policies of Tunisian President Kais Saied in years. She pointed to the participation of opposition parties from different political trends.
Participants raised banners bearing several slogans, including “No homeland without freedom,” “No dignity with poverty,” and “No to tyranny, poverty, and slavery.” Demonstrators also chanted the phrases, “Work, freedom, national dignity,” “No fear, no terror.. The street belongs to the people,” while some of them chanted the slogan, “The people want to overthrow the regime.”
The Secretary-General of the Tunisian Labor Union, Salah al-Din al-Salmi, criticized the way the country was run, holding the authority responsible for the crises Tunisia is experiencing.
Al-Salmi said: “The promises have not turned into reality, and waiting is no longer possible,” considering that Tunisia’s crisis goes beyond the lack of resources to wrong political choices and the concentration of powers.
Al-Salmi added that “Tunisia is too big to be reduced to the rule of an individual or to individual decisions,” and that “silence, intimidation, exclusion, and the accumulation of powers cannot be the basis for ruling the state.”
Criticisms directed at Tunisian President Kais Saied are not limited to living conditions and how he deals with civil society organizations, as the Tunisian opposition accuses Saied of using the judiciary to “achieve political purposes.”
Many Tunisian opposition figures are in prison, after court rulings were issued against them on several charges, including “conspiracy against state security.”
The judicial rulings affected prominent figures in the Ennahda movement, including the movement’s leader and former head of the House of People’s Representatives, Rashid Ghannouchi, as well as several leaders in the opposition “National Salvation Front,” in addition to Abeer Moussa, head of the Free Destourian Party.
On the other hand, Saeed affirms that the Tunisian judiciary is independent, stressing the need to respect the judiciary’s rulings and that those who appear before the courts face “accusations related to the law, not political positions.”
The most prominent transformation in the Tunisian political scene began in July 2021, when President Saied took exceptional measures that included freezing the work of the People’s Assembly before dissolving it later, then approving a new constitution in 2022 that granted the presidency broader powers.
Since then, human rights organizations say that the country has witnessed a gradual decline in democratic guarantees, especially with judicial prosecutions targeting politicians, opponents, lawyers, journalists, and activists.
On the other hand, supporters of the Tunisian president believe that the measures taken by Saied since 2021 were a response to years of political paralysis and partisan conflict after the revolution.
"Successive human rights criticisms"
In its annual report covering the events of 2025, Amnesty International criticized the level of rights and freedoms in Tunisia.
Amnesty International added in its report: “The authorities have escalated their repression of freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and all forms of opposition. Human rights organizations have been targeted for investigations or asset freezes, in addition to human rights defenders and employees of non-governmental organizations being prosecuted and detained for their human rights work.”
In the same context, Human Rights Watch said, in September 2026, on the anniversary of the Tunisian Revolution: “About 15 years after the protests that broke out in Tunisia, sparked the Arab uprising in 2011 and led to the flourishing of civil society, President Kais Saied seized power on July 25, 2021, paving the way for a further slide toward tyranny.”
Human Rights Watch added, “By prosecuting NGO workers, imprisoning them, or forcing them to flee into exile, and dismantling civil society groups, the authorities are ensuring that there is no one left to hold them accountable, with dire consequences for the realization of the human rights and protections that civil society has long fought for.”
Tunisia is experiencing unstable economic conditions, with increasing unemployment rates and rising prices.
In your opinion,
What are the implications of the expanding circle of those who reject President Kais Saied’s policies?
Do the protests reflect factional demands or are they an expression of broader dissatisfaction within Tunisian society?
How do you see the slogans raised by the demonstrators?
What are the Tunisian president's options in dealing with protests against his policies?
How do you see the path of rights and freedoms in Tunisia after July 25, 2021?
We will discuss these and other topics with you in the episode of Monday, October 19.
