Tunisia’s powerful UGTT labor union rallied in the capital on Saturday in what appeared to be the biggest protest yet against President Kais Saied, staging a show of strength after his recent crackdown on opponents.
Many thousands of protesters filled Habib Bourguiba Avenue, the main street in central Tunis, holding banners that read “No to one-man rule” and chanting “Freedom! End the police state.”
They were marching after weeks of arrests targeting prominent opponents of Saied, who has staged his first major crackdown since he seized wide-ranging powers in 2021, shutting down parliament and moving to rule by decree.
The crackdown is the biggest since Saied’s seizure of powers and his opponents say it is increasingly clear that he has dismantled the democracy won in the 2011 revolution that triggered the Arab Spring and will end the freedoms it brought.
Saied has denied his actions were a coup, saying they were legal and necessary to save Tunisia from chaos.
