Saied was elected by a landslide in 2019 over dissatisfaction at the lack of post-revolution political and economic progress, but two years later staged a power grab and later began rolling back freedoms.

The 2011 revolution toppled longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, after weeks of unrest following the self-immolation of a fruit seller protesting police harassment and unemployment.

On Wednesday around 1,000 backers of Saied, whom the opposition accuse of authoritarianism, marched in central Tunis, AFP journalists said.

“The people want Kais Saied again,” chanted demonstrators, many of them middle-aged men and women, referring to his possible candidacy for a third term in 2029.

“The people want national sovereignty. No to foreign interference!” chanted some.

Saied regularly denounces alleged attempts at destabilisation that he says originate from abroad.

Other slogans targeted the jailed head of the Islamist-inspired opposition Ennahdha party, Rached Ghannouchi, a staunch Saied critic, calling him a “henchman” or “murderer”.

In April, Ghannouchi was sentenced to 18 years behind bars on charges of “conspiracy against state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group” in a mass trial criticised by rights groups.

Ennahdha dominated Tunisian political life for a decade after Ben Ali’s fall in January 2011 until Saied’s power grab in the summer of 2021.

The country’s political opposition and Tunisian and foreign rights groups have denounced a rollback of rights and freedoms since 2021.

Opposition figures have been given lengthy prison terms, as have dozens of lawyers, journalists and civil activists.

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