TUNIS: President Kais Saied, democratically elected before taking power in 2021, sees himself as a man on a divine mission for Tunisia, but critics see him as the harbinger of a new authoritarian regime. Clean-shaven, with an unflinchingly erect and slim figure, Saied has a stiff demeanor and no social media account. He has given very few media interviews during his tenure and limits his public comments to monologues in videos posted on Facebook in which he speaks in terse classical Arabic, sometimes with visible anger. In three years, the sixty-six-year-old man dismissed three prime ministers. “The president does not believe in the role of intermediaries between the people and himself,” said Romdhane Ben Amor, a spokesman for the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES). “He believes he has a revolutionary divine mission to fulfill the will of the people,” Ben Amor said. The president has often claimed a conspiracy to undermine the country while waging a “war for liberation and self-determination”. From day one, Saied pledged to right Tunisia’s political and economic wrongs after the country toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. Five years into his tenure, Amnesty International has condemned the “alarming decline in fundamental rights in the birthplace of the Arab Spring”, the regional uprisings against authoritarian rule that began in 2011 in Tunisia. Constitutional law professor Saied rose to prominence in 2011 when he appeared on television to explain his area of expertise. In 2019, he campaigned under the slogan “the people want” – an echo of slogans used during the revolution against Ben Ali – and won his first mandate in a democratic landslide with 73 percent of the vote. In 2021, he staged a large-scale power grab and dissolved parliament, replacing it with a rubber-stamp legislature. A year later, he consolidated power by rewriting the constitution that enshrined one-man rule, which many critics say is reminiscent of the regimes of Ben Ali and his predecessor, Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia’s first president in 1957. But for Saied, the country of 12 million has yet to reach its prime. He defiantly accused international institutions and organizations of meddling, saying local human rights groups were receiving “huge sums of money” from abroad to undermine the country. In 2023, Saied rejected the International Monetary Fund’s “foreign dictates” regarding bailing out the heavily indebted economy. Saied said the measures would only lead to “more poverty”. Instead, he called for the revival of the country’s phosphate industry. Internationally, Saied maintains close ties with neighboring Algeria, a key supporter providing cheaper energy and financial loans. He is a supporter of pan-Arabism, stands on the side of the Palestinians and has strengthened relations with Iran, Russia and China. However, Tunisia remains a strategic regional partner for the United States and France – their main financial backers and arms suppliers. Born in 1958 in Beni Khiar near Nabeul in eastern Tunisia, Saied grew up in a middle-class family. He holds conservative views on social issues, particularly homosexuality, and is married to Judge Ichraf Chebil, with whom he has two daughters and a son. Saied is a lover of classical Arabic music and a calligraphy amateur, often writing speeches and letters in ink and dip pen. He has presided over a wave of arrests targeting the political opposition and other critics, so he is poised to win on Sunday. But it also has its supporters. Mechanic Slah Assali, 45, in Ariana, a northern suburb of Tunis, remembers Saied as a “kind and decent” customer. “Newspaper in hand and a cup of coffee, sometimes he would sit and chat with us in the shop,” he told AFP. “He would explain the political happenings in the country.” Echoing Saied’s own points, Assali said he would vote for Saied again because he is “serious and hard-working, but is often hindered by hidden hands”. Imed Mehimdi, a server at a cafe in Ariana, described Saied as humble and kind. “He got the country back on track,” he said. He “saved Tunisia in the face of many disasters” and “fought corruption”.
