Thousands march on Habib Bourguiba Avenue five years after Saied's power grab

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.

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