On July 26, clashes broke out in front of the Tunisian parliament between supporters of the moderate Islamic party Ennahdha and those of President Kais Saied. The building is surrounded by the army after Saied suspended construction on the evening of July 25 and removed the prime minister from office, sparking a constitutional crisis in the midst of the pandemic. The army also surrounded the seat of the government presidency, preventing personnel from entering.
At the moment, Prime Minister Hicham Mechichi is unattainable, dismissed in a context of strong popular anger against the executive and its management of the economic and health crisis. After a day of demonstrations in various cities of the country, President Saied announced the “freeze” of parliamentary activities for 30 days, self-appointing himself at the helm of the executive, “with the help of a government” of which he will designate the new head.
Ennahdha, the main majority party, condemned the measures, denouncing in a statement “a coup against the revolution and the constitution”. The Tunisian president’s decision was criticized by Turkey, an ally of Ennahdha, which asked for “democratic legitimacy” to be re-established. But also from Germany, which he invited to “return as soon as possible to constitutional order” and to “respect civil liberties, which are one of the most important results of the Tunisian revolution” of 2011, often presented as the only one to have had happened in the Arab springs.
Entry forbidden
The president of parliament and head of Ennahdha, Rachid Ghannouchi, remained several hours in sit-in in front of the closed doors of the building, rejected by the military. “We want to enter parliament, we are the defenders of the constitution,” Assembly Vice President Samira Chaouachi told the soldiers, captured in a video released by local media. “We are the defenders of the nation,” one of the military replied, before adding that he was following “orders”. These measures, Ghannouchi declared on the party’s official website, “aim to change the nature of the political regime in Tunisia and to transform a parliamentary democracy into a presidential, personalistic and authoritarian regime”.
President Saied stated that the constitution does not authorize him to dissolve the parliament but that in the event of “imminent danger” Article 80 allows him to suspend its work. The article applies for 30 days, after which it is up to the constitutional court to decide whether to extend its validity. But since the adoption of the constitution in 2014, the political calculations of the various parties have prevented the creation of this very institution.
This coup, which makes Tunisian democracy even more fragile, came after a struggle that lasted six months between Ghannouchi and Saied, which decided to dismantle national institutions just as the country faces a constant increase in infections. With nearly 18,000 deaths out of 12 million inhabitants, Tunisia has one of the worst lethality rates in the world from covid-19, and just last week Prime Minister Mechichi removed yet another health minister.
After Saied’s speech, on the evening of 25 thousand people took to the streets despite the curfew and health restrictions. They lit fireworks, honked carousels in Tunis and several other cities. A young woman who was celebrating by waving the Tunisian flag said: “These are courageous decisions … This is the president we love.” “These fools celebrate the birth of a new dictator,” commented a man in his forties.
In addition to Ennahdha, the coalition parties Qalb Tounes and the Islamist nationalist movement Karama also condemned the president’s decisions, and criticism also came from the opposition Social Democratic party Courant démocratique, which has often supported Saied in the past, and which has nevertheless given the coalition led by Ennahdha the responsibility for popular tension, the social, economic and health crisis and the lack of outlets in the future.
Support for Saied came from the small nationalist Chaab group, according to whom the president “has taken on his responsibilities” to “straighten the revolutionary process”.
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