In the shifting sands of North African politics, Tunisia was once hailed as the solitary success story of the Arab Spring. It was the exception that proved the rule, a nation that successfully navigated the treacherous transition from autocracy to a fragile but functioning pluralism. Yet, as the sun sets on that democratic experiment, a new and more ominous shadow is lengthening over the Mediterranean. The current political climate suggests that the “Tunisian Exception” has not just stalled but is being systematically dismantled to make way for a regime that bears all the hallmarks of a permanent presidency.

The alarm was recently sounded by the Democratic Current, one of the few remaining secular opposition groups capable of public dissent. Their warning was stark: there are clear intentions within the palace to engineer a third term for President Kais Saied. While Saied’s current mandate still has years to run, the architecture for its extension is already being built. This is not merely a matter of political speculation; it is an analysis of a deliberate institutional hollow-out designed to ensure that the sitting president becomes the only viable option for the nation’s future.

The primary tool in this engineering project is the strategic vacuum at the heart of the Tunisian........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)