Tunisian President Kais Saied was inaugurated for a second term, marking the culmination of a year marked by a sweeping crackdown on political opponents and a rewriting of the country’s constitution, The Associated Press reports.
Saied, who won re-election with a resounding 90.7% of the vote, called for a “cultural revolution” in his inaugural speech, pledging to fight unemployment, terrorism, and corruption.
“The aim is to build a country where everyone can live in dignity,” he declared to members of Tunisia’s parliament.
Saied’s victory came after a turbulent first term that saw him suspend parliament, dissolve the judiciary, and rewrite the post-Arab Spring constitution. He has faced widespread criticism for jailing dozens of his critics, including politicians, journalists, businesspeople, and civil society activists.
Saied has defended the crackdown as necessary to combat corruption and “enemies of the state”, drawing on populist rhetoric to appeal to Tunisians disillusioned with the country’s trajectory since the 2011 revolution that toppled Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
In his speech, Saied continued to target his perceived opponents, promising to pursue “thieves and traitors on the payroll of foreigners” and blaming “counterrevolutionary forces” for impeding his efforts to revitalize Tunisia’s struggling economy.
Despite proclaiming a commitment to respecting freedoms, many journalists were barred from covering Monday’s inauguration, leading to condemnation from the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists. The syndicate issued a statement expressing “its firm condemnation of the ongoing blackout policy and restrictions on journalistic work”.
