Five years of Kais Saied

In a speech for the 69th anniversary of the Republic, broadcast on the UGTT's official page, Selmi called for a revision of public policy and of economic choices. He said falling purchasing power, the rising cost of living and the degradation of public services, in health, education, transport, electricity, water, medicines and the social funds, amount to a deep crisis. He rejected the partial or total sale of public enterprises and asked for investment and reform instead. He said running public affairs without sufficient consultation with the national organisations and civil society does not resolve the difficulties, and called for more dialogue.

Meeting the head of government, the economy minister and the central bank governor at Carthage on 20 July, on the law approving the 2026-2030 development plan, Saied said debts had piled up without benefiting Tunisians, and that Tunisia had met all its obligations without any delay in repayment. He called for those debts to be converted into investment to rebuild public services.

”La Tunisie a honoré tous ses engagements et n'a accusé aucun retard dans le remboursement de ses obligations”Tunisia has honoured all its commitments and has been late on none of its repayment obligations

Opening a plenary session on the water and electricity cuts on 27 July, Bouderbala argued that the crisis should be met by relying on state institutions and citizen engagement. He pressed for radical reforms, with short-term action plans and an overall strategy for the medium and long term. He urged members not to give in to pessimism, saying other countries had faced similar crises and recovered through sound management.

Speaking in the plenary session on public affairs on 27 July, Aidoudi criticised what he called the retreat of parliament's role, and accused the executive of not engaging with the assembly and of not taking up members' proposals on regional concerns. He said members had become marginalised, and that invitations to the president to visit interior regions had gone unanswered. He said the development plan did not answer the interior regions' expectations and entrenched inequity in the distribution of projects, above all in the Kasserine governorate, and that several of its projects had been announced before. Social, regional and distributive justice had not been achieved, he said, and he called for the development choices to be revised.

Meddeb describes censorship across the board, and says livestock are dying, restaurants closing, the sick suffering and some of the old dying. Al Jazeera reports power cuts of up to twelve hours.

”That anger has to go somewhere and it's being aimed at the state-owned electricity and water companies, sometimes it's aimed at the government, but never at the one figure who has control: the president.”That anger has to go somewhere and it's being aimed at the state-owned electricity and water companies, sometimes it's aimed at the government, but never at the one figure who has control: the president.

Presenting the 2026 finance law at an information day in Tunis on 8 January 2026, Louzir warned that the tax system is beginning to reach its limits. He called the law innovative and meant it sarcastically: it runs to 110 articles, half of them proposed by members of parliament, and it legislates pay rises directly instead of leaving them to bargaining between unions and employers. On value added tax he set out a calculation: on a market GDP estimated at 132 billion dinars and an average rate of 15 per cent, the state should collect close to 20 billion dinars, while actual receipts stall between 11 and 12 billion.

”Cependant, le système fiscal commence à atteindre ses limites, avec une pression fiscale désormais comparable à celle de nombreux pays de l'OCDE et largement supérieure à celle des pays africains”However, the tax system is beginning to reach its limits, with a tax burden now comparable to that of many OECD countries and well above that of African countries