Five years into one-man rule, Tunisian anger stays below the surface

Al Jazeera reported on August 1 that frustration over 12-hour blackouts, a deteriorating economy and jailed critics is widespread but largely unorganised, five years after President Kais Saied suspended parliament and began ruling by decree. Human Rights Watch's Tunisia director Salsabil Chellali, Carnegie's Hamza Meddeb and Crisis Group's Riccardo Fabiani describe an opposition fragmented by prosecutions and a press narrowed by censorship, leaving discontent without a political vehicle. For anyone reading Tunisian risk the point is that the absence of visible mobilisation is not the same as consent. It removes the early warning that organised protest usually provides.

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