Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Tunis, the Tunisian capital, to condemn a deepening economic crisis and what demonstrators describe as a broadening government crackdown on political dissent. President Kais Saied faces accusations of dismantling the democratic gains Tunisia (a North African country that led the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011) achieved following the revolution that ousted longtime autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The protests underscore growing public frustration with both deteriorating living conditions and what critics see as an accelerating authoritarian turn under Saied's rule.