The New York Times reports:

Tunisia’s fledgling democracy, the only one remaining from the popular revolutions that swept the Arab world a decade ago, trembled on the brink of collapse Monday after its president sought to seize power from the rest of the government in what his political opponents denounced as a coup.

The president, Kais Saied, who announced the power grab late Sunday, did not appear to have completely succeeded in taking control as of Monday evening, as chaos enveloped the North African country. But many Tunisians expressed support for him and even jubilation over his actions, frustrated with an economy that never seemed to improve and a pandemic that has battered hospitals in recent weeks.

With Syria, Yemen and Libya undone by civil war, Egypt’s attempt at democracy crushed by a counterrevolution and protests in the Gulf States quickly extinguished, Tunisia was the only country to emerge from the Arab Spring revolutions with a democracy, if a fragile one.

But the nation where the uprisings began now finds even the remnants of its revolutionary ideals in doubt, posing a major test for the Biden administration’s commitment to democratic principles abroad. [Continue reading…]

David Hearst writes:

At the time, I was pilloried for it. No such plan existed, I was told. It was all the product of my Islamist contacts, I was told. In fact, the source of the document was secular, and inside the presidency itself.

The document was not just a passing letter that happened to fall into the presidential mailbox, as Saied himself maintained four days later after he was forced to acknowledge that the document was genuine.

It was a concrete plan drawn up by his closest advisers.

The document which MEE revealed stated that after the prime minister, Hichem Mechichi, and the Speaker of Parliament Rached Ghannouchi had been lured to the palace and locked up there, a general, Khaled al-Yahyaoui, would be appointed acting interior minister.

This is what happened on Monday morning. Al-Yahyaoui was duly appointed as the man who will lead the crackdown now taking place on politicians and journalists.

Not only has Saied seized all executive power, he has also appointed himself attorney general. [Continue reading…]