Tunisia crisis: Democrats, despots and the fight for power

By Magdi AbdelhadiNorth Africa analyst

The eyes of many people are on the small country in North Africa that set the Middle East on fire when in 2011 it toppled a dictator that had ruled it for 27 years.

Tunisia - the birthplace of the so-called Arab Spring - shook the tectonic plates of power in a vast and strategic region, and no-one knows when and how they will settle back: in the same old despotic order or a new one that is yet to be born?

That question has become even more pressing after 25 July, when the secular President Kais Saied stunned the world by announcing the suspension of parliament, the sacking of the cabinet and assuming emergency powers citing an imminent threat to the Tunisian state.

These extraordinary measures are supposed to last for 30 days. No-one knows yet whether he will extend the emergency powers, or if he will embark on something else.

For Tunisia watchers the development came as no surprise. The poster child of the "Arab Spring" has long been moving inexorably towards the precipice.

Add to that the devastating impact of Covid-19. Tunisia has some of the highest infection rates in Africa.

All of this has created among a large number of Tunisians a sense of hopelessness and a loss of faith in parliament and the country's political parties.

That explains why Mr Saied's draconian measures were met with jubilation on the streets.

His supporters were simply fed up with parliament, and yearned for someone, a strongman perhaps, who could fix the country.

But can Mr Saied really fix it?
"A replacement strongman is not the answer to Tunisia's problems," The Economist publication warned in a recent editorial.
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