Trouble in Tunisia

<p>Tunisia was supposed to be the success story of the Arab Spring — the only democracy to last in the decade since revolutions swept the region.</p><p>Recently, after mass protests, President Kais Saied appears to be taking the reins of power for himself.</p><p>What happened? We hear from Mr. Saied and citizens of Tunisia on the ground. </p><p>Guest: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/vivian-yee?smid=pc-thedaily">Vivian Yee</a>, the Cairo bureau chief for The New York Times. </p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/signup/NTTD?smid=pc-thedaily">Sign up here</a> to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/the-daily?module=inline">subscribe to our newsletter</a>. </p><p>Background reading: </p><ul><li>Why is Tunisia’s<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/world/africa/tunisia-revolution-democracy.html?smid=pc-thedaily"> promise of democracy</a> struggling to bear fruit?</li><li>In the days since their president staged a power grab, threatening their young democracy, many Tunisians are banking on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/world/africa/tunisia-president-lockdown.html?smid=pc-thedaily">the hope that things cannot get much worse</a>.</li><li>“Why do you think that, at 67, I would start a career as a dictator?” In<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/01/world/middleeast/tunisia-president-kais-saied.html?smid=pc-thedaily"> a conversation with Vivian Yee</a>, President Kais Saied vowed to preserve hard-fought rights.</li></ul><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily">nytimes.com/thedaily</a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. </p>