Tunisia
On Saturday July 25, five years to the day since Kais Saied suspended parliament and began ruling by decree, protesters marched from Republic Square to the Municipal Theatre demanding his departure and reviving the 2011 chant "the people want the fall of the regime". Al Jazeera described crowds in the thousands; Business News, reporting from the march, put the turnout at more than 2,500. The march was called by Nafas, an umbrella grouping opposition parties and independents, and it fused the demand for the release of political prisoners with anger over water and power cuts: participants placed everyday shortages on the same footing as the political demands, turning the utilities crisis into a national mobilising issue.
While civil society groups were mobilising against him, several dozen supporters of Kais Saied gathered outside the Municipal Theatre in Tunis to mark the anniversary, carrying Tunisian flags and portraits of the head of state and chanting "no going back", "down with the traitors and plotters" and calls to jail the "sold-out"; some openly called for a presidency with no term limit. Speakers said they would rather endure water shortages and power cuts than see "the old system" return. Business News, reporting from the scene, noted the contrast between the modest turnout and the intensity of the displays of loyalty; Directinfo confirmed both gatherings took place in central Tunis.
In a statement on July 25 the Assembly of the Representatives of the People called on Tunisians to close ranks around republican values, drop political quarrels and hate speech, and concentrate on the 2026-2030 development plan: attracting investment, modernising public services, making use of national resources and delivering social justice. The chamber explicitly wrote that the 69th anniversary chimes with the "new Republic" begun by the process of July 25, 2021 and consolidated by the 2022 constitution, and pledged to use its legislative and oversight powers in full to speed up reforms. The communique is the institution's own reading of a date the opposition marked the same day as the end of the democratic transition.
In a statement for the 69th anniversary of the Republic, the Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH): one of the four organisations of the National Dialogue Quartet awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize: said the principles the Republic rests on are now being tested, pointing to the concentration of power in the presidency, the absence of an effective separation of powers and the fact that the Constitutional Court has still not been set up. It called for a "serious dialogue" with political and civil actors and for the release of political prisoners, journalists, lawyers and all those held for their opinions or affiliations, as steps that could rebuild trust between citizens and state institutions.