The Tunisian president is inaugurated for a second term

In this photo provided by the Tunisian presidency, Tunisian President Kais Saied takes the oath of office in Tunis on October 21 after his re-election. (AP)

TUNIS, Tunisia, Oct 23 (AP): Tunisian President Kais Saied has been inaugurated for a second term, after months of a crackdown and a series of arrests against his political opponents. Weeks after winning re-election with 90.7% of the vote, the 66-year-old former law professor called for a “cultural revolution” in his inauguration speech on Monday to combat unemployment, fight terrorism and root out corruption.

“The goal is to build a country where everyone can live in dignity,” Saied said in a speech to members of the Tunisian parliament. Saied’s re-election on October 7 came after a turbulent first term in which he suspended the country’s parliament and rewrote parliamentary elections. The Arab Spring constitution was revoked and dozens of its critics in politics, media, business and civil society jailed.

He has justified elements of the crackdown as necessary to fight corruption and the enemies of the state, using populism to appeal to Tunisians disillusioned with the direction in which those who came before him took the country after nationwide protests in 2011 had led to the ouster of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. . He vowed to target the “thieves and traitors on foreigners’ payrolls” and accused “counter-revolutionary forces” of hampering his efforts to shore up Tunisia’s struggling economy during his first term.

‘The task was not easy. The dangers were great,” he said. ‘The weapons of the old regime were like vipers circulating everywhere. We could hear them hissing even though we couldn’t see them.” Although Saied promised to respect freedoms, many journalists were unable to cover his swearing-in on Monday, prompting a rebuke from the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists, which “strongly condemned the continued blackout policy and restrictions on journalistic work . ‘ in a statement.