For the second month running Tunisians have taken to the streets against President Kaïs Saïed in what the Forum Tunisien pour les Droits Economiques et Sociaux (FTDES) says amounts to hundreds of separate protests nationwide over water and power cuts alone...

Tunisia has returned to a highly personalised form of rule since President Kaïs Saïed was elected in 2019 and whose July 2021 ‘state of exception' – now most widely known as the ‘self-coup' – has allowed him to consolidate his hold on power...

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni returned once more to Tunisia at the end of July to ink the Mattei Plan with President Kaïs Saïed...

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...