Tunisian authorities arrest union leader as Saied widens crackdown
More critics and opponents of President Kais Saied are being detained on an almost daily basis amid a growing crackdown.
Tunisia’s police arrested an official of the country’s largest trade union, as Tunisian President Kais Saied faces mounting pressure over his economic policies and widens his crackdown.
Reuters reported on Thursday that Abdel Nasser Ben Amara, the general secretary for culture at the Tunisian General Labor Union (known by its French acronym, UGTT), was detained on Wednesday on suspicion of insulting a minister. His detention comes days after a protest organized by the union in front of the Ministry of Culture, according to the official.
Ben Amara is the second union official to be detained recently amid a growing dispute between the UGTT and Saied. In late January, the secretary-general of the union's highway branch was arrested after organizing a strike by tollbooth operators to protest austerity measures sought by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout loan. More than 20 political figures have been arrested in the North African country in recent weeks, Agence France-Presse reported.
Tunisia has been embroiled in political turbulence since Saied’s power grab in 2021 and subsequent measures, which are seen as eroding the remaining pillars of the country’s post-Arab Spring democracy.
