As African migrants are swept up in a widening crackdown, critics say President Kais Saied is openly mining a deep vein of discrimination and prejudice against dark-skinned people in Tunisia.
A big step backward for Tunisia s press - Columbia Journalism Review cjr.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cjr.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The last time Tunisia plunged into political crisis its infant democracy unravelling amid political deadlock, assassinations and mass unrest it fell to the country's traditional guardians to find a way forward.
The president is consolidating one-man rule while the economy, sapped by mismanagement, the pandemic and war in Ukraine, flails. Groups that helped avert a past crisis are largely silent.