Praised for its “feats” by Italy’s extreme right, the immigration policy implemented by President Kais Saied builds off a strategy whose objectives are twofold. Here is how the government has succeeded in killing two birds with one stone.
Populisme 8
The July 25th Path, Democracy, and Dictatorship in Tunisia
Following one of the world’s most dramatic democratic transitions since the early 1990s, Tunisia’s descent into personalist rule has been equally stark. Although Kais Saied’s accumulation of power bears similarities to executive aggrandizement in other parts of the world, Saied’s regime is atypical in other ways that may be telling of the president’s assets and liabilities as he and his opposition navigate the first presidential elections since the coup.
Denigration, Kais Saied’s political weapon of choice
Kais Saied is particularly generous when it comes to spouting off vague accusations. Ever loyal to his habitual fallback, conspiracy theories, the Tunisian president is quick to point a finger at certain “parties” without naming them, to throw verbal jabs and employ sarcasm as captured in videos diffused on social media. With all this verbal jousting, who has time to respect the rule of law anyway?
Administrative purge: a new current in the regime’s authoritarian drift
What do the designation of a new prime minister and the public admonition of national television’s CEO have in common? Both highlight President Kais Saied’s new priority to « cleanse » the administration. Envisioned as a means to further consolidate the regime’s grip on power, the planned purge may in fact undermine the fragile web of alliances that is holding it together.
It’s not you, it’s them: the populist appeal of Kais Saied
President Kais Saied’s time in power has been anything but uneventful. However, his claims of speaking for ‘the people,’ his hatred of any institution that stands in his way and his endless conspiracies, which dominate the public conversation while the economy sinks, all have parallels. They’re there in Donald Trump, Hugo Chavez and even Silvio Berlusconi.
Sub-Saharans in Tunisia: The untruths expounded by president Kais Saied
Tunisia’s president has accused civil society of fomenting the country’s colonization by undocumented migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Kais Saied denounces those who wish to « change the demographic composition » of Tunisia, evoking their « violence and criminality ». His proof? Contacted by Nawaat, the Interior Ministry affirmed that it does not have statistics regarding the number of migrants implicated in criminal activities. A glimpse at the facts exposes the president’s xenophobic fiction for what it is.
The lost people of Kais Saied: Analysis of a declining popularity
Extremely low participation in the first round of legislative elections has brought the government face to face with a dilemma: how to set up a regime intended to be the expression of the people’s aspirations…without the people?
Tunisia’s Presidential Elections 2014: campaign posters, public communication and political marketing
In this last phase of electoral campaigning, our presidential candidates have flooded television and radio stations to present their political programs. While some have limited public communication to a discourse concerning the constitionally-imposed attributes of a president, others appeal to undecided voters with a discourse devoted to populist issues, and still others have made far-fetched promises that are well beyond their capacity to keep.
