The election of Kais Saied gives Tunisians something to cheer

IT HAS BEEN a difficult eight years since Tunisia toppled its dictator and embraced democracy in 2011. The economy remains stagnant, corruption is still endemic, terrorism is a problem and politicians have disappointed. But the election of Kais Saied (pictured) as president on October 13th has brought a new sense of hope. After it became clear that Mr Saied had won, thousands of Tunisians gathered in the capital, many chanting the same slogans from eight years earlier. Mr Saied himself hailed his victory as a “new revolution”.

What that revolution will look like is hard to say. In both style and substance, Mr Saied defies easy political labels. The 61-year-old retired law professor was an awkward campaigner, delivering stiff speeches in formal Arabic. He says homosexuality is “an illness and foreign plot” and opposes equal inheritance for men and women. He also calls for radical changes to the democratic system. He has no political party, yet he won the backing of secular and left-wing groups, as well as Ennahda, a moderate Islamist party, which came top in the parliamentary election on October 6th.

Mr Saied trounced Nabil Karoui, a fiery businessman who ran a populist campaign aimed at the poor. That two political outsiders made it to the final round, over many more familiar faces, was a rebuke of the political elite....