Such authoritarian tendencies in the region risk becoming further entrenched after elections in autumn 2024 delivered hefty yet disputed victories for Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed...

Tunisia weaponises Mediterranean migration Having emerged as an unlikely president from the 2019 election Kaïs Saïed ran again virtually unopposed in October having arrested rivals hobbled opposition parties and undermined the independence of the justiciary and Banque Centrale de Tunisie (BCT)...

With the most credible opposition figures in detention or boycotting the presidential election on 6 October Kaïs Saïed's victory was pre-ordained and pointless at the same time...

Those who would have voted differently simply stayed away only the brave 10% voted for other candidates (Dispatches 8/10/24 Kaïs Saïed gets his landslide but millions ignore the vote)...

In Tunisia meanwhile President Kaïs Saïed's government has signed two memoranda of understanding involving France's oil and gas major TotalEnergies renewable energy company Eren Groupe Austria's Verbund and Saudi Arabia's ACWA aimed at producing a combined 800 000 tonnes of green hydrogen a year for export to Europe...

One of her first tasks will be to finalise an aid and migration pact with Tunisia's President Kaïs Saïed which has been stuck in negotiations...

A day after German Chrisitian Democrat Ursula von der Leyen secured her second term as President of the European Commission on 18 July one of her closest partners in Africa Tunisia's president Kaïs Saïed announced he would be running for another term in presidential elections on 6 October...

President Kaïs Saïed's speech in which he espoused the 'great replacement' conspiracy theory (in this case that Africans are changing the predominantly Arab country's demography) resulted in thousands of people mainly from West Africa being evicted from their homes in Tunisia and beaten...