Tunisia's Kais Saied: President on a 'divine mission'

Kais Saied, who has been re-elected president of Tunisia, was first elected democratically in 2019 before staging a power grab in 2021.

He sees himself as a man on a divine mission, but critics see him as ushering in a new authoritarian regime.

Clean-shaven, with an unwaveringly upright and slender figure, Saied has a stiff demeanour.

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"The president does not believe in the role of intermediaries between the people and himself," said Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesman for the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES).

"He believes he has a revolutionary divine mission that would fulfil the people's will."

Saied has often alleged the existence of plots aiming to undermine the country while he wages "a war of liberation and self-determination".

Last week, he called on Tunisians to "vote massively" to usher in what he called an era of "reconstruction".

He cited "a long war against conspiratorial forces linked to foreign circles", accusing them of "infiltrating many public services and disrupting hundreds of projects" under his tenure.

From day one, Saied pledged to right Tunisia's political and economic wrongs after the nation ousted longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

Five years into his term, rights group Amnesty International has denounced "a worrying decline in fundamental rights in the birthplace of the Arab Spring", the regional uprisings against authoritarian rule that began in 2011 in Tunisia.

A constitutional law professor, Saied became prominent in 2011 during television appearances expounding on his area of expertise.

He built his 2019 campaign on the motto "the people want" -- echoing slogans used during the revolution against Ben Ali -- and won his first term democratically in a landslide with 73 per cent of the vote.

'Foreign diktats'

In 2021, he staged a sweeping power grab and dismissed parliament, replacing it with a rubber-stamp legislature.

A year later, he consolidated power by rewriting the constitution, enshrining a one-man rule which, to many critics, raises similarities to the regimes of Ben Ali and his predecessor, Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia's first president in 1957.

But for Saied, the country of 12 million has yet to reach its heyday.

He has defiantly accused international institutions and organisations of interference, while alleging that local rights groups receive "huge sums of money" from abroad, intended to undermine the country.

In 2023, Saied rejected "foreign diktats" from the International Monetary Fund over a bailout for the heavily indebted economy.

Saied said the measures would only "lead to more poverty".

Instead, he called for revival of the country's phosphates industry.

Calligraphy amateur

Internationally, Saied has maintained a close relationship with neighbouring Algeria, a key supporter providing cheaper energy and financial credits.

A proponent of Pan-Arabism, he stands with the Palestinians and has strengthened ties with Iran, Russia and China.

But Tunisia remains a strategic regional partner for the United States and France -- its main financial supporters and arms suppliers.

Born in 1958 in Beni Khiar, near eastern Tunisia's Nabeul, Saied grew up in a middle-class family.

He holds conservative views on social issues, particularly on homosexuality, and is married to magistrate Ichraf Chebil with whom he has two daughters and a son.

Saied is a classical Arabic music afficionado and a calligraphy amateur, often handwriting speeches and letters with ink and dip pens.

He has presided over a wave of arrests targeting the political opposition and other critics.

But he also has his supporters.

In Ariana in the northern suburbs of Tunis, 45-year-old mechanic Slah Assali remembers Saied as a "kind and decent" customer.

"A newspaper in hand and a cup of coffee, he would sometimes sit and chat with us at the shop," he told AFP. "He would explain political events in the country."

Assali, echoing Saied's own talking points, said he would vote for Saied again because he is "serious and hard-working yet often hindered by hidden hands".

Imed Mehimdi, a waiter at a cafe in Ariana, described Saied as modest and kind.

"He has put the country back on track," he said. "He saved Tunisia in the face of many disasters" and "fought corruption".