Tunisia's presidential campaign season starts against backdrop of protests, arrests

euronews (in English)

Protests at the weekend capped off a week in which the North African country’s largest opposition party, Ennahda, said its senior members had been arrested at a scale not previously seen.

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00:00Presidential election campaigns have started in Tunisia against a backdrop of protests

00:07against the country's rulers and the arrests of several opposition politicians. Demonstrators

00:12organized a mass rally in the capital, Tunis, to protest against what they say is the deteriorating

00:17state of the country. Unemployment has steadily increased to one of the region's highest at

00:2316 percent. And the National Institute for Statistics said in March that economic growth

00:28was at a standstill at just 0.4 percent.

00:33President Kays Said, who is seeking a second term in office, is an unpopular figure in

00:38Tunisia. When he was first elected in 2019, he used anti-corruption promises to win over

00:44people disillusioned with the country's politics since the Arab Spring. But since taking office,

00:50the former law professor has gone to lengths to consolidate his own power, freezing the

00:54country's parliament, ruling by decree and rewriting the constitution.

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