Episode 1 – The day the air became breathable again
Thursday, November 27, 2025, something rare happened in this turbulent country: the air became breathable again. We didn’t really know why at first, but then we understood. Sonia Dahmani had just been released from prison. A year and a half locked up for… an opinion, a touch of irony, a breath too free. We opened the window: it was freedom coming back to say hello.
Social networks started to fizz like a soda that has been shaken for years. Thousands of people, whom we don’t know but who we understand very well, felt this breath of air like me. A simple, almost childish joy. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen this country smile without looking behind it to check if it wasn’t forbidden.
But hey, Tunisia remains Tunisia. The next day, the lid fell back just as dry. Friday morning, we learned that the sentences were confirmed and increased for a good handful of political prisoners in the so-called “conspiracy against state security” case. A case so surreal that it is sometimes the defendants who ask the judges questions, and not the other way around. Lazhar Akremi, straight in his sandals, asked the magistrate: “ Is there a single tangible act that I have committed that would be reprehensible? »
And there, nothing. Not a breath. Not a word. Silence. Always the same. The awkward silence of a justice system that searches for its evidence as one searches for glasses while they are on their head.
What goes for Lazhar goes just as much for Kamel Letaïef, Karim Guellaty, Khayem Turki, Chayma Issa, Néjib Chebbi, Ayachi Hammami, Abdelhamid Jelassi and the whole gallery of imaginary suspects. They are said to have had meetings with foreign diplomats — a mystery, no diplomat is prosecuted, no country is named, no content is specified.
Some, like our friend and shareholder Karim Guellaty, were not even questioned. Nor by the investigating judge. Nor by the president of the court. Nor at first instance. Nor on appeal. We save time where we can. He is even credited with visiting countries he only knows about on postcards.
Justice still ended up recognizing that Noureddine Boutar, Lazhar Akremi and Hattab Slama were innocent. Alright. But then why were they arrested, detained, separated from their families for months — even years? For what ?
Thursday, with the release of Sonia, we took a small dose of hope. A homeopathic dose, certainly, but a dose nonetheless. I have the right to feel free in my country. We have the right to feel free in our country. It is a fundamental right. And this country, even damaged, even mistreated, still has the right to these breaths. Joy will return. Soon. Very soon. It’s a matter of time. Tick tock. Tick tock.
Episode 2 — Sovereignty descends into frenzy
It must be believed that this week, Tunisian diplomacy decided to go into acrobatic mode without a net. Between Brussels raising its voice, the European Parliament choking, and Tunis summoning ambassadors and gesticulating like an upset teenager, we came close to contemporary choreography. Bad news: no one understood the steps.
Thursday, while the European Parliament recalled that freedoms are not optional (nor negotiable at the price of the kilo), our authorities responded with this old scratched vinyl refrain: “National sovereignty!”
It has become the alarm siren of regimes who do not want anyone to talk to them about their prisoners.
And that’s where this morning, Saturday, my dear friend, blogger Mehrez Belhassen (aka بيغا العظيم), summed it all up better than anyone.
He explains that, in the official imagination, we are not citizens, but “hostages”, stuck inside the “territory” of a bureaucracy which owns us like a flock. A polite way of saying that sovereignty, for us, is the sacred right to mistreat the people of the country without anyone having the bad taste to intervene.
The reasoning, in Tunisian version: “ These are mine. I arrest them, I starve them, I gag them, I walk them around in handcuffs if I feel like it. You, European, you give the money, you close your eyes and above all you keep silent.”
It sounds like you’re hearing a homeowner annoyed by indiscreet neighbors.
And obviously, we come up with the magic word: “الاستقواء”, the “call abroad”.
At home, we treat as “الاستقواء“ any person who dares to point out that human rights do not stop at Melloula customs. As Mehrez says, it’s a bit like criticizing an injured boxer for using a shin guard against an opponent armed with an iron bar provided by the referee. The first is alone, while the second has the police, the army, the “justice” and a gang of madmen at his side.
The diplomatic week followed the same logic:
– Europe is shouting “beware of danger”.
– Tunis responds “mind your own business”.
And meanwhile, the citizens caught in a vice watch the scene wondering how much longer they will be the collateral damage of this “sovereignty” which never protects them, but often crushes them.
And to say that we are surprised that everything went wrong.
So, is the regime’s reaction disproportionate? More than that: she exudes excitement. It looks like a regime that is going through the roof for a simple paragraph voted in Brussels. When a power begins to scream like this to hide discomfort, it is because he felt something moving under his feet. And often, this kind of noise does not announce strength… but the end of a cycle.
Walls never collapse silently: they always start by vibrating.
Tic tac. Tic tac.
Episode 3 — When a regime gets angry with everyone
There are diets that manage crises. And there are those who collect them like rare stamps. Ours, in recent months, seems to be playing “who wants a fight?” with an almost sporting ardor.
Last Saturday, more than 3,500 people marched in black in Tunis. Not a black of mourning: a black of weariness. A disciplined crowd, silent, but mounted to the edge. And in the middle of the slogans, an observation that has become a national running gag: “ in six years, the only palpable achievement of the regime is… a municipal swimming pool. »
No matter how hard we look, we can’t find anything better to illustrate a power that swims alone in its pool while the country takes on water.
And this Saturday was not an accident: a new demonstration is organized, this time at the call of civil society. Another street. Another reason. Another proof that the dike is breaking.
In the air is an observation that everyone is now repeating on social networks: the regime is in conflict with practically all components of society.
Lawyers, journalists, trade unionists, workers, residents of Gabès, supporters, associations, artists, the unemployed, businessmen, influencers, deputies, even those who worked in Carthage.
The list reads like an encyclopedia of national frictions.
And as if that were not enough, he also alienated the European Union, which elegantly completes the series of diplomatic disasters detailed in the previous episode.
In a normal country, a power questions itself when so many people, professions, regions, generations agree on the same observation of injustice.
At home, we prefer to talk about plots, sabotage, “interference”, “sovereignty”, everything except the problem.
It’s always easier to blame the entire planet than to look into the hall of mirrors.
And yet, despite the speeches, despite the summons, despite the martial tone, something is moving.
Something is brewing.
Something adds up.
When a regime alienates Europe, corporations, artists, workers, young people, magistrates, journalists, trade unionists, regions, etc. and even the trees on Avenue Bourguiba, it is not a sign of strength.
It is a sign of the end of breath.
And the ends of the breath always have the same noise.
Tic tac. Tic tac.
