Tunisia: From the Revolution of Dignity to the Nightmare of Dictatorship.. Al-Mazouna Reveals the Face of the New Regime
Tunisia is no longer the country that inspired the world with its brave revolution 15 years ago; it has turned into a stark example of a state suffocating under the weight of an oppressive autocratic rule. What happened in the remote town of Al-Mazouna on April 15, 2025, when a school wall collapsed on innocent students, was not just a tragic incident; it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, revealing the reality of the “new republic” promised by Kais Saied: a republic without institutions, without vision, and lacking even the minimum respect for citizens’ dignity.
From the moment the Tunisian president decided to dismantle the nascent democratic system in 2021 and replace it with a constitution laden with absolute powers, Tunisia began its freefall into the unknown. While the state was expected to focus on reforming the ailing economy and building institutions, the president’s sole concern was to consolidate power in his hands and eliminate any potential threat to his dominance. The result? A collapsed economy, paralyzed institutions, and a population living in the echo of hollow promises and hollow speeches that translate on the ground only into increased repression and decline.
The crisis did not stop at Tunisia’s borders but extended to ignite an unprecedented regional crisis. After years of neutrality and diplomatic wisdom, Saied decided to play with fire and place Tunisia in the embrace of separatist projects, thus provoking one of the region’s oldest and most important alliances. His controversial reception of the leader of the so-called “Polisario” in 2022 was just a chapter in a series of dependencies on a regional system grappling with its own crises. Saied transformed Tunisia from a country that was seen as a bridge for communication between the Maghreb countries into an isolated state, refusing even to discuss Maghreb unity, as if it chooses the opposite path of history.
Yet the most painful scene followed the Al-Mazouna disaster: a president who is indifferent, who cannot even find words of condolence for the victims’ families, while his security apparatus rushes to arrest the school director and turn him into a scapegoat. It is the same mentality that has transformed Tunisia from a country once studied as an emerging democratic experiment into a nation devoured by corruption and ruled with an iron fist. The youth who took to the streets in anger after the incident were not just protesting the collapsed wall, but against an entire state that is collapsing.
